Silences keep us apart. Stories bring us together. What politics callously divides and damages, literature gently connects and heals. This is not the time for despair. This is not the time for apathy. We must continue to write. We must connect better. We must definitely listen. We must care for each other-- as citizens of humankind. Today I remember how the author, the novelist Iris Murdoch wrote about "unselfing" --the process by which we turn our attention outward onto the world. Literature gives us the possibility, and the ability, to step outside the self and connect with humanity. We need the art of storytelling now more than ever before. To connect, to understand, to change, to feel, to heal what is broken, to create a better future for our planet and to realise that we are not alone