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

The highest vocation of photography is to explain man to man.

Writing is a little door. Some fantasies, like big pieces of furniture, won’t come through.

... the place we assign to pornography depends on the goals we set for our own consciousness, our own experience.

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.

My library is an archive of longings.

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of ''meanings.''