I make an idol of my moral consciousness. My pursuit of the good is corrupted by the sin of idolatry.

I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.

Art is seduction, not rape.

The wisdom of literature is quite antithetical to having opinions. 'Nothing is my last word about anything,' said Henry James. Furnishing opinions, even correct opinions - whenever asked - cheapens what novelists and poets do best, which is to sponsor reflectiveness, to pursue complexity. Information will never replace illumination.

That's what a community is: taking for granted certain assumptions, not having to start from zero every time. This is no longer true.

My library is an archive of longings.

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don't become inured to what they are shown — if that's the right way to describe what happens — because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.