Language is the net that holds thought trapped within a particular culture. But if one could only strike the ball with sufficient force, with perfect timing, it would perhaps break through the netting, continue on its course, never fall to earth, but go into orbit around the world.

Life, after all, should go forwards, not backwards.

To read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another

I'm a bit of a deconstructionist myself. It's kind of exciting - the last intellectual thrill left. Like sawing through the branch you're sitting on.

Perhaps that's what we're all looking for - desire undiluted by habit.

It was Adam Appleby's misfortune that at the moment of awakening from sleep his consciousness was immediately flooded with everything he least wanted to think about

Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.