Avant je pensais que ce que je faisais aurais de l’importance. Que ça changerait le monde. Que rien ne serait plus comme avant… Mais c’est inutile. Le monde est trop vieux, il n’y a rien de noeuf. Tout a été dit.

— Arthur Rimbaud, Eclipse Totale (1995)

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Not everything, no. I am starting to believe it is the way you say things — perhaps more than any other component of content — that shifts something inside of other people. They may not realise it at the time, but they notice it later when they are alone and trying to gather themselves. That is when they see parts of you that have decided to stick to them permanently. And all your words go rushing back to them.

Nothing will ever be as it was before.

I do not think it is possible to establish a global equilibrium. As long as people are all different, everything you say could be important. Which is why we still read books and engage in dialogue. That is also why someone like Kundera can give you shelter and soothe you with his sentences when no one else in the world can.