“Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.” — Vladimir Nabokov

Oh, Nabokov.

"...a series of footnotes..."

I rather like that.  We are just gathering copy, collecting data, weighing the connections between one discovery and the one made in our research a while back.  Say, oh, last year.  We make the footnotes, we write upon our existence and we write upon each other.  All this language, once written, can be rewritten: scratched out, demolished, and begun anew.

There are some footnotes you write in bold ink, and then highlight.