In searching for a way out of my own troubles, I had found my way into the troubles of others, some long gone, and now I was trying to find my way back out, through their troubles, as if we human beings can ever learn from one another.

It is at the heart of our human enterprise, that is to say, at the heart of society, to allow consensus a power it ought not to have.

If Americans are to read something that is difficult, they will only do so supposing they will be admired for having done it.

I don't start with an idea or concept in the sense that I flesh out an idea or concept and set it at the center of something.

I have a very basic notion of the structure the book might have - that's mostly it. The rest is luck and happenstance.

A person always has a chance to protest this or that.

A book can just be a description of a stick being snapped in half. If the reader is brought to feel the plight of the stick, well, you can imagine what that would be like.