" What’s ‘the shit’?” “The picture we have of one another. Layers and layers of misunderstanding. The picture we have of ourselves. Useless. Presumptuous. Completely cocked-up. Only we go ahead and we live by these pictures. ‘That’s what she is, that’s what he is, this is what I am. This is what happened, this is why it happened— "

― Philip Roth , American Pastoral (The American Trilogy, #1)