To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more - and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.

I think part of the success which Structuralist or post-Structuralist thought in critical theory has had in literary studies in American universities is due to a theoretical vacuum.

People robbed of their past seem to make the most fervent picture takers, at home and abroad.

Marriage is a sort of tacit hunting in couples.

Self-exposure is commendable in art only when it is of a quality and complexity that allows other people to learn about themselves from it.

Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading.

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