I'm extremely interested in the Russian formalists and have been for many years. I'm more drawn to their writing, which is expressive and literary, than to writing which is extremely academic or jargon-ridden.

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

... liberal intellectualstend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping thatthose in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the "establishment.

Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.

The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream. A story should break the reader's heart.

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.

The single most amazing phenomenon is the discrediting of idealism.