Zach

"This is their dream," he says pointing vehemently at the earth, and then adds in a bitter, wounded tone, "and we are their creatures. They disguise themselves and trick us, toy with us, draw us into their empty themes, leave us stuck in their follies... trifling with us and then, when we need them - where are they? They're gone."
And then he turns away from me and plunges his face into his hands.
Later, he looks up again, to the sky, the street, and murmurs, "Now we forget, now is the time." [35]

"I may never be anything better than a journeyman narrator now. If I ever were to write an account of these events, which are in any case written, my narrative would be incoherent and inconclusive; I never know enough to say." [16]

"I find unaccountable difficulties always arise in searching out the narrative sections of any marketplace, but of course how could I know that? Anyhow there always seems to be some sort of distraction, or the sort of wrong turn that, having drawn you into the trammels of its mischief, dodges behind the innocent turns and loses itself among them like an absconding pickpocket... the creation of a new symbola is not simply a matter of drawing a series of substitute markings; it is a magical undertaking, in which an ordination must be created that will allow for the improvisation of signs that will become permanent, and which must be commensurate with the client's requirements and expressive, at every point, of a rigorous internal coherence. Some clients will get phonetic alphabets, others syllabaries; some symbols, others pictures, depending on their needs, wants, personalities, whatever exigency is expressed in their need for a writing way of their own. Furthermore, the characters must seem appropriate to their sounds, or concepts, and this is where no amount of unassisted technical ability avails. The association of symbols is conducted in often grueling, if simple, rituals that can last for weeks; some accomplished artisans have died in pursuit of them. There is no telling at the outset what will cause the most difficulty; in some cases, extreme refinement of nuance may bring the symbolist to the point of complete collapse, while in other cases it may be an intolerable simplicity and directness that suffocates her." [32-33]