After hours poring over the Danish census, I turn back to my novel . . . .

"Once you get started in these things it is addictive. You wonder if everyone and everything in the world is intimately related. You're a time traveler and suddenly the past is alive, the dead are walking, cracked walls gleam, the rivers run free. Those old newspaper files are just a keystroke away and you're off on another search. You pluck a thread and it leads to. . . .everywhere. Is there a limit to relatedness?" (from The Tree Bride by Bharati Mukherjee)