If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an experience of underinvolvement, of detachment.

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

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

We live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. It is fantasy, served out in large rations by the popular arts, which allows most people to cope with these twin specters.

Whoever invented marriage was an ingenious tormentor. It is an institution committed to the dulling of the feelings. The whole point of marriage is repetition. The best it aims for is the creation of strong, mutual dependencies.

The traditional metaphor for a spiritual investigation is that of the voyage or the journey. From this image I must dissociate myself. I do not consider myself a voyager, I have preferred to stand still.

I'm interested in the possibility of fiction which straddles narrative and essay.