The envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, the greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power.

Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural.

What any true painting touches is an absence - an absence of which without the painting, we might be unaware. And that would be our loss.

History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past

Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream.

What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why but the editorialists forget it terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.