Most of my reading is rereading.

Photographers are always imposing

War-making is one of the few activities that people are not supposed to view 'realistically'; that is, with an eye to expense and practical outcome. In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudent – war being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.

In every society, the definitions of sanity and madness are arbitrary - are, in the largest sense, political.

The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders.

Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution. Poignant longings for beauty, for an end to probing below the surface, for a redemption and celebration of the body of the world. Ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it.

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.