Marks of Identity is, among other things, the expression of the process of alienation in a contemporary intellectual with respect to his own country.

The vitality of a culture is in its capacity to assimilate foreign influences. The culture that's defensive and closed condemns itself to decadence.

A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.

The fundamental purpose of a novel like Count Julian is to achieve the unity of object and means of representation, the fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language.

The writer cannot abandon himself simply to inspiration, and feign innocence vis a vis language, because language is never innocent.

In my opinion, the most significant works of the twentieth century are those that rise beyond the conceptual tyranny of genre; they are, at the same time, poetry, criticism, narrative, drama, etc.

In Count Julian I simply proposed to create a text which would allow for diverse levels of reading.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates, the writer functions totally in unison with society, and expresses society's feelings, beliefs, and hopes in perfect harmony.

I not only lived physically away from my native land, but the values and critical judgments of those closest to me became stranger and stranger.

As I began to discover my own truth and endeavored to possess it with CLARITY, I became more and more alienated from that which my companions held, or professed to hold.

My exile was not only a physical one, motivated exclusively by political reasons; it was also a moral, social, ideological and sexual exile.

It was a trap after all, ” Alric said. He turned to Royce. “My apologies for doubting your sound paranoia.

I steer my bark with hope in my heart leaving fear astern.

[On Dashiell Hammett:] ... he is so hard-boiled you could roll him on the White House lawn.

There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of The Street.

In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain.

You might be a redneck if you own all the components of soap on a rope except the soap.

It is well to cultivate a friendly feeling towards error, to treat it as a companion inseparable from our lives, as something having a purpose, which it truly has.

At boarding schools of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice.

Not disown my past or upbringing, but I'd admired American actors, really American movie star - particularly the rebel heroes of the '50s.

Plenty of church members are shaky about what they believe, while not many are shaken by what they believe.