- Are we still talking about cuckoos

- Are we still talking about cuckoos? - We're talking about kids. And stories. It's a parallel process. The two things are exactly comparable. - How do you figure that, Mr. Tallis? - First thing we do for a kid is make a story for him. Who he is. Who he's gonna be. What is he before that story hits him? Just an animal, really. The story is what makes him human. - But the story's just words and pictures. The kid is real. He's out there in the world. - Is that where he is? Really? Far as I can see, we mostly exist as ideas in each other's heads. The way you see me. The way my boss sees me. The way the waitress at Lindy's sees me. Skins on an onion, right? Except that's all there is to us. The skins.

Mike Carey, The Unwritten Vol. 5: On to Genesis