Although photography generates works that can be called art-it requires subjectivity, it can lie, it gives aesthetic pleasure-photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made.

What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.

What makes me feel strong? Being in love and work. I must work.

The Western memory museum is now mostly a visual one.

What I expect from writers-and from myself as a writer-is to articulate a complex view of things. To incite us to be more compassionate. To orchestrate our mourning. And to celebrate ecstasy.

Remember when you hear yourself saying one day that you don't have time anymore to read or listen to music or look at paintings or go to the movies or do whatever feeds your head now. Then you're getting old. That means they got you, after all.

The truth of history crowds out the truth of fiction - as if one were obliged to choose between them.