"It is strange. A man gets to know a woman. For a long time they are one. They have mingled their thoughts, their bodies, their hopes, their odours, their lives. They are one. And then a while later they are strangers. They are not one anymore. just as though it had never happened, as though looking at oneslef in the mirror and seeing a stranger instead of one's reflection. (..) Slowly har hand came down and played with hair and rubbed my head against her side. Spontaneous perhaps, and unpremeditated; neverthless a scene probably already encountered in a film or a play or an opera or a book which the brandy unknowingly evoked. Artists try to depict people; and people depict the artists' conception of people. (..) 'Do you remember?' 'What?' she wispered. We remebered, and the stranger in the mirror became familiar once more, recognizable and close and one and the same.

Waguih Ghali, "Beer in the snooker club"