“Story is the closest we human beings can come to truth.”

Madeleine L’Engle, Glimpses of Grace

“It means the Japanese are exquisitely sensitive to the group. More than anything, they are attuned to getting along with the group. It means not standing out, not taking a chance, not being too individualistic. It also means not necessarily insisting on truth. The Japanese have very little faith in truth. It strikes them as cold and abstract. It’s like a mother whose son is accused of a crime. She doesn’t care much about the truth. She cares more about her son. The same with the Japanese. To the Japanese, the important thing is relationship between people. That’s the real truth. The factual truth is unimportant.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“We all read to learn the truth about ourselves, and we read to escape from the world we know into someone else’s universe.”

Adèle Geras, Teen

“A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn’t say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn’t like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn’t shave.”

John Steinbeck, Cannery Row