One of the most significant facts about humanity may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to a live a thousand kinds of life but end in the end having lived only one

If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code

Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.

I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field.

Culture is public, because meaning is

The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.

I've written a lot of books which are written from the moon - the view from nowhere.