Today I know that everything watches, that nothing goes unseen, and
that even wallpaper has a better memory than ours. It isn't God in His
heaven that sees all. A kitchen chair, a coat-hanger a half-filled ash
tray, or the wood replica of a woman named Niobe, can perfectly well
serve as an unforgetting witness to every one of our acts.
      -- The tin drum, Gunter Grass