Curiously enough, it seems to be only in describing a mode of language which does not mean what it says that one can actually say what one means.
Paul de ManThe bases for historical knowledge are not empirical facts but written texts, even if these texts masquerade in the guise of wars or revolutions.
Paul de ManThe ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature.
Paul de Man