Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.

10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of ''meanings.''

Everything was simple, physical, painful, exalting. The world consisted of the four elements - land and water, firepower and distancing air.

The writer must be four people: 1) The nut, the obsede 2) The moron 3) The stylist 4) The critic. 1 supplies the material; 2 lets it come out; 3 is taste; 4 is intelligence.

Sight is a promiscuous sense. The avid gaze always wants more.

The basic unit for contemporary art is not the idea, but the analysis of and extension of sensations.