Fiction does not invent out of a vacuum, but it invents; and what it invents is, first, the fabric and cadence of language, and then a slant of idea that sails out of these as a fin lifts from the sea.
Cynthia OzickWhat we think we are surely going to do, we don't do; and what we never intended to do, we may one day notice that we have done, and done, and done.
Cynthia OzickI would distinguish between a visitor and a pilgrim: both will come to a place and go away again, but a visitor arrives, a pilgrim is restored. A visitor passes through a place; the place passes through the pilgrim.
Cynthia Ozick