Needs, and Liking Your Mom

People're a nestful of needs. Dull needs, sharp needs, bottomless-pit needs, flash-in-the-pan needs, needs for things you can't hold, needs for things you can. Adverts know this. Shops know this...I've got what you want! I've got what you want! I've got what you want! But walking...this afternoon, I noticed a new need that's normally so close-up you n ever know it's there. You and your mum need to like each other. Not love, but like.

-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 194

"The sense of having one's life needs at hand, of traveling light, brings with it intense energy and exhilaration. Simplicity is the whole secret of well-being."

-Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg.117)