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

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.

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 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.

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.

Live, so you do not have to look back and say: 'God, how I have wasted my life.'

If you see your brother about to be harmed and somebody is doing something, you must speak out. It takes courage to do that. Then you have to come out of yourself to do that.

Where is there a boy to whom the call of the wild and the open road does not appeal?

No one will ever know anyone. We just have to deal with each other. You're not ever gonna know me.

Our military has been greatly weakened by a lot of bad decisions and other things.

Virginity is something that can be offered to God.

It really strikes me how much of your energy in America, especially if you're from a working back-ground, is spent just keeping your head above water. It really saps your grace and your strength.

Nations are not thugs. They are bodies of intelligent people.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

What a person does is what he IS, not what he says.