"If I hit that tree with this stone, Rousseau says to himself, then all will go well with my life from now on. He throws the stone and misses. That one didn't count, he says, and so he picks up another stone and moves several yards closer to the tree. He misses again. . . . That was just the final warm-up toss, he says, it's the next one that really counts. But just to make sure, he walks right up to the tree this time, positioning himself directly in front of the target. He is no more than a foot away from it by now, close enough to touch it with his hand. Then he lobs the stone squarely against the trunk. Success, he says to himself, I've done it. From this moment on, life will be better for me than ever before."

- Paul Auster "The Music of Chance"

Source: Paul Auster. The Music of Chance. Quoted in: Maddison Smartt Bell. 1990. Poker and Nothingness. New York: The New York Times. Available from URL http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/20/specials/auster-music.html