“Only in books the flat and final happens,
Only in dreams we meet and interlock....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it’s fresh, we’re on the ocean. Of course it’s for sale, we’re not giving it away. Of course it’s here, otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)
“In the final analysis, “style” is art. And art is nothing more or less than various modes of stylized, dehumanized representation.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)