Literature exists at the same time in the modes of error and truth; it both betrays and obeys its own mode of being.
Paul de ManThe critical method which denies literary modernity would appear -- and even, in certain respects, would be -- the most modern of critical movements.
Paul de ManWhat we call ideology is precisely the confusion of linguistic with natural reality, of reference with phenomenalism
Paul de ManFashion is like the ashes left behind by the uniquely shaped flames of the fire, the trace alone revealing that a fire actually took place.
Paul de Man