I don't have principles. I have nerves.

A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.

I didn't want to be either the cre`me de la cre`me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a democracy that doesn't understand the language I write in.

No matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home. No matter how you lived there - well or poorly.

When the eye fails to find beauty-alias solace-it commands the body to create it, or, failing that, adjusts itself to perceive virtue in ugliness.

In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.

The government, the state, they're just objects of jokes rather than serious consideration. I can't possibly take them seriously.