I think that we're all, as human beings, so limited. If we want to write about ourselves, that's fairly easy. And if we write about our friends or our families, we can do that. But if we want to project ourselves somewhere beyond our personal experience we're going to fail unless we get that experience or we borrow it from others.
William T. VollmannWe're living in what used to be Mexico, and there's this very fluid border feeling. You go a little bit south of Tijuana, for instance, into Ensenada, and it still seems kind of borderlike. And you go much farther, suddenly the prices are lower, the prostitution is different, the commerce is different, everything feels more "Mexican."
William T. VollmannI decided that there is really some sort of entity that I call Imperial, and I decided to extend it all the way along the California-Mexico border and into Tijuana and then to the Pacific because it all has a similar feeling.
William T. VollmannAre you a censor? Do you tell people not to say โgirlโ? Shame on you! If nothing offends you, youโre a saint or youโre psychotic. If a few things offend you, deal with them--fairly. If youโre often offended by things, youโre probably a self-righteous asshole and itโs too bad you werenโt censored yourself--by your mother in an abortion clinic.
William T. VollmannI want to fall in love with beautiful women of all races. Rescue somebody every now and then, improve my painting, and improve my sentence structure. If I can make a living doing that stuff, that's great, and I will keep doing it, and they can do whatever they want with my image. I couldn't care less.
William T. Vollmann