It is not altogether wrong to say that there is no such thing as a bad photograph - only less interesting, less relevant, less mysterious ones.

Life is a movie; death is a photograph.

There is a terrible, mean American resentment toward a writer who tries to do many things.

One task of literature is to formulate questions and construct counterstatements to the reigning pieties. And even when art is not oppositional, the arts gravitate toward contrariness. Literature is dialogue: responsiveness. Literature might be described as the history of human responsiveness to what is alive and what is moribund as cultures evolve and interact with one another.

Ideas disturb the levelness of life

Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead.

Along with people who pretty themselves for the camera, the unattractive and the disaffected have been assigned their beauty.