To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing! People were talking about the end of physics; relativity and quantum physics looked as if they were going to clean out the whole problem between them. A theory of everything! But they only explain the very big and the very small; the universe, the elementary particles. The ordinary side stuff, which is our lives – the things people write poetry about – clouds, daffodils, waterfalls, and what happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes in. These things are full of mystery.
– Valentine Coverly, Arcadia