We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

We tell ourselves that it makes some difference whether the naked woman is about to commit a mortal sin or is about to register a political protest or is about to be, the Aristophanic view, snatched back to the human condition by the fireman in priest's clothing just visible in the window behind her, the one smiling at the telephoto lens.

-- Joan Didion, THE WHITE ALBUM. New York: The Noonday Press, 1979, 11.

Last updated: 25 September 2000