If an irreducible distinction between theatre and cinema does exist, it may be this: Theatre is confined to a logical or continuous use of space. Cinemahas access to an alogical or discontinuous use of space.

God, living is enormous!

I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations and lists: people as different as Borges and Walter Benjamin, Novalis and Godard.

People tend to become cynical about even the most appalling crisis if it seems to be dragging on, failing to come to term.

Norman Mailer in his writings is ultimately more concerned with success than with danger; danger is only a means to success.

Decline of the letter, the rise of the notebook! One doesn't write to others any more; one writes to oneself.

Al forms of consensus about ''great'' books and ''perennial'' problems, once stabilized, tend to deteriorate eventually into something philistine. The real life of the mind is always at the frontiers of ''what is already known.'' Those great books don't only need custodians and transmitters. To stay alive, they also need adversaries. The most interesting ideas are heresies.