'The life we all live is amateurish and accidental; it begins in accident and proceeds by trial and error toward dubious ends. That is the law of nature. But the dream of man will not accept what nature hands us. We have to tinker with it, trying to give it purpose, direction, meaning - or, if we are of another turn of mind, trying to demonstrate that it has no purpose direction, or meaning. Either way, we can't let it alone. The unexamined life, as the wise Greek said, is not worth living. We have to examine it, if only to persuade ourselves that we matter, and are in control, or that we are at least aware of what is being done to us. Autobiography and fiction are variant means to the same end.'
Wallace Stegner, 'The Law of Nature and the Dream of Man' in Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, p.219.
