Morality did not keep well; it required stable conditions; it was costly; it was subject to variations, and the market for it was uncertain.

The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass ... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.

Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished.

For self-realization, a rebel demands a strong authority, a worthy opponent, God to his Lucifer.

Sex annihilates identity, and the space given to sex in contemporary novels is an avowal of the absence of character.

If one means by style the voice, the irreducible and always recognizable and alive thing, then of course style is really everything.

...the tourist Venice is Venice.