“Culture is like a smog. To livewithin it, you must breathe some of it in and, inevitably, becontaminated.”

“Cultural decline is not inevitable.”

“In a culture of domination, preoccupation with victimage is inevitable.”

“Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo.”

“True writers know that writing is not something they feel required to do,or to make a living they must do, it is quite frankly like breathing. Somecan breathe often and fluently, some short breaths, some a long exhaleand for many of us it is the patient steady breathing surrounding life.”

“You mean that people who continue virtuous in an old-fashioned way must inevitably suffer in times like these?”