" It is true I was too serious. But perhaps the other children, and even the teachers, were not serious enough. The spider's silk lines of chance that can break and wash out from beneath you one or more of your cornerstones, toppling you into heartache and confusion, estrangement. Perhaps I was too aware of the tenuousness (and hence the beauty) of one's foundations, but I often thought others around me were not enough aware. "

― Rick Bass , The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness