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- The societal critic has, must have, one great, tragic flaw — they participate in the society they critique; there is no outside, only the fantasy of the outside; in writing disavowals, we actually reveal our closeness to the fabric of other people.
- So much of my writing begins with a simple premise: something is wrong, something is making me anxious. The way ‘we’ live makes me anxious because in many ways, it’s the way I live. My philosophy is not objective, and has no objective; it is subjective and has a subject.
- If most contemporary architecture was burned down and nobody was harmed, I think many of us would celebrate; the uglification of the world has profound consequences — consequences we ignore. (This is what I thought of while Notre Dame was burning.)
- Would life really be worse without highways and high-speed internet? Do we really need so much physical and digital connection? Does a human being need much more than a patch of fertile, giving earth? I’m skeptical.
- What the burning of Notre Dame highlights is our immense longing for The Real: for physical, historical, rootedness.
