Books can truly change our lives: the lives of those who read them, the lives of those who write them. Readers and writers alike discover things they never knew about the world and about themselves.
Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.
In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.