I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.
Jacques DerridaIf this work seems so threatening, this is because it isn't simply eccentric or strange, but competent, rigorously argued, and carrying conviction.
Jacques DerridaWhatever precautions you take so the photograph will look like this or that, there comes a moment when the photograph surprises you. It is the other's gaze that wins out and decides.
Jacques DerridaWhy is it apparently the philosopher who is expected to be "easier" and not some scientist or other who is even more inaccessible to the same readers?
Jacques DerridaThe trace I leave to me means at once my death, to come or already come, and the hope that it will survive me. It is not an ambition of immortality; it is fundamental. I leave here a bit of paper, I leave, I die; it is impossible to exit this structure; it is the unchanging form of my life. Every time I let something go, I live my death in writing.
Jacques Derrida