We have such little mystery in our lives generally because of how we live now. I mean, of course, mystery is all around us, but the way we live our lives now, we're too busy to be bothered with it.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

The way we live history is not the way historians tell history. Our lives are messy and chaotic and bewildering.

The way we live history is not the way historians tell history. Our lives are messy and chaotic and bewildering.

Writing is a way of processing our lives. And it can be a way of healing.

Sanitising stories, leaching out all of the sense of danger and the darkness out of the stories, actually reduces them and stops them from doing what they're supposed to do, which is teach us how to manage our lives.