Insan zekâsı, tabiatın içinde değil, tabiatın yanında ayrı bir kuvvettir. Tabiatı beğenmediği için değil midir ki, insan zekası, şiiri, mimariyi, musikiyi, dansı ve yanında büyük, küçük şu bu bir sürü hayat sanatlarını yaratmıştır. Hayatımıza tat veren derin zevklerin yaratıcısı olan insan zekasının halis bir mahsulü olduğu için kitap, tabiattan büsbütün ayrı, ondan daha lezzetli ve ondan daha dinlendiricidir.
"Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed."
"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
Hayatı boyunca bir manzara resminden ibaret olduğunu sandığı şeylerin gerçek olduğunu dar etti bir anda: Yabancı kentler gerçekmiş, ünlü sanat eserleri de, metro sistemleri de, Berlin Duvarı'nın kalıntıları da. Adı paraymış bunun; dünyayı gerçek kılan madde.