Every major work of art is a transgression, but the artist is not necessarily, by nature, a transgressor.

We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.

The voice of the Constitution is the inescapably solemn self-consciousness of the people giving the law unto themselves.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Stories distribute the suffering so that it can be borne.

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.

Images break with a small ping, their destruction is as wonderful as their being, they are essentially instruments of torture exploding through the individual's calloused capacity to feel undifferentiated emotions full of longing and dissatisfaction and monumentality.