Thinking others' thoughts

It's a time of great upheaval for me, of anticipation and a more than a little trepidation.  Such times call for the wisdom of cherry-picked quotations.  These have been running through my head lately:

You always got to be prepared but you never know for what.        -Bob Dylan

APRIL 26. Mother is putting my new secondhand clothes in order. She prays now, she says, that I may learn in my own life and away from home and friends what the heart is and what it feels. Amen. So be it. Welcome, O life, I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.                -James Joyce

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.               -Franz Kafka

This last was used by Bowles in Sheltering Sky.  I can't decide if that book should be required reading for every American thinking of going to north Africa, or be absolutely forbidden.