“I have always thought: China is as far as anyone can go. Still true. When I was ten, I dug a hole in the back yard. I stopped when it got to be six feet by six feet by six feet. ‘What are you trying to do?’ said the maid. ‘Dig all the way to China?’ No. I just wanted a place to sit in. …My refuge. My cell. My study. My grave. Yes, I wanted to dig all the way to China. And come bursting out the other end, standing on my head or walking on my hands.”
