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15 August, 2011

We know the force of gravity, but not its origins; and to explain why we become attached to our birthplaces we pretend that we are trees and speak of roots. Roots, I sometimes think, are a conservative myth, designed to keep us in our places.

Salman Rushdie -Shame

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots in unaccustomed earth.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Custom House