Cities have often been compared to language: you can read a city, it's said, as you read a book. But the metaphor can be inverted. The journeys we ma….

Writers tend to think they occupy a much more relevant place in society than we actually do. But we really are closer to buffoons and jesters than we….

I learned to keep at a certain distance from things - and to make myself a little bit invisible while I observed and understood them..

I like reading the world through a writer's eyes, rather than seeing a writer looking at him or herself as if at the center of gravity of the world a….

I can always, quite easily, put myself in other people's shoes, so to speak, and look at the world through them..