Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes.

The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.

A writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. Gertrude said, “I don’t look like that.” And Picasso replied, “You will.” And he was right.

When human rights are abused on a grand scale, the broth of purity boils and feeds the rebellion of a new order.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.