Over emphatic negatives always suggest that what is being denied may be what is really being asserted.
Jonathan RabanIn an underdeveloped country don't drink the water. In a developed country don't breathe the air.
Jonathan RabanSeattle is a liberal city, its politics not so much blue in the American, not the British, sense as deep ultramarine, and its manners are studiously polite.
Jonathan RabanOne classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set it. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.
Jonathan Raban