"We think now that our individuality is terribly important, but back in the time when we were in the marvelous forest, even though we were individual entities, we were all part of a greater whole. We were perfectly contented with our own existences, perpetually awash in the feelings of infinite nostalgia. However, at some point we have to leave the mystical forest and venture into the outside world to be born as human beings. The way I see it, because each and every one of us possesses an individual life, or soul, the sooner we leave the forest that we are scattered to the four winds. That's my theory, for what it's worth! But as we go about living our own lives, don't we always feeling a lingering sense of wistful nostalgia for the earlier time when we were altogether, happily unborn yet alive amid the marvels of the forest?"

(Death by Water - Kenzaburo Oe)