Wherever There's Capitalism There's This Inclination Toward

I've Never Had A Stupid Student In My Life. I Never Look Down On My Students. I Never Thought, "look At These People." I Might Argue With Them And I Think That Some Of Them Might Have Misconceptions - That They Might Be Infected By The Intellectual Laziness That Is The Foundation Of American Popular Culture, And Of Capitalism, If You Wish. But Part Of My Job As A Teacher Is To Work With That - Against That.

We Dreamt Of Light, But Hoped For Darkness.

I Do Have A Sense Of Displacement As Constant Instability — The Uninterrupted Existence Of Everything That I Love And Care About Is Not Guaranteed At All. I Wait For Catastrophes.

Every Writer Owes Something To A Particular Tradition He/she Grew Up In. But No Serious Writer - Other Than The Militantly Nationalist Ones - Would Reduce His/her Domain Of Influence To A Single Tradition. Furthermore, Historical Breaks Are So Common And Large In Europe That There Are Ruptures In Every Tradition Which Then Connect The Same Generations Across National Borders. Younger Eastern European Writers, For Instance, Have More In Common With Other Writers Of The Same Age In Europe, Than With The Previous, Communist-era Generations In Their Own Countries.

We Hated Pretentiousness; It Was A Form Of Self-hatred.