“The fact is that each writer creates his own precursors.”

“In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future."-- Essay: "Kafka and his Precursors”

“The fact is that every author creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.”

“If a writer disbelieves what he is writing, then he can hardly expect his readers to believe it.”

“He thought that the rose was to be found in its own eternity and not in his words; and that we may mention or allude to a thing, but not express it.”

“To say good-bye is to deny separation; it is to say Today we play at going our own ways, but we'll see each other tomorrow. Men invented farewells because they somehow knew themselves to be immortal, even while seeing themselves as contingent and ephemeral.”

“To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.”