Works of art cannot save us. They can simply render us more sensitive to what needs to be repaired.

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is 'The Book of British Birds,' and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.

Because subjects like literature and art history have no obvious material pay-off, they tend to attract those who look askance at capitalist notions of utility. The idea of doing something purely for the delight of it has always rattled the grey-bearded guardians of the state. Sheer pointlessness has always been a deeply subversive affair.

Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.

The humanities should constitute the core of any university worth the name.

The German philosopher Walter Benjamin had the curious notion that we could change the past. For most of us, the past is fixed while the future is open.

Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs.