The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects /making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.

The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects - making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.

It's a pleasure to share one's memories. Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe /though we didn't know it at the time. We know it now. Because it's in the past; because we have survived.

The likelihood that your acts of resistance cannot stop the injustice does not exempt you from acting in what you sincerely and reflectively hold to be the best interests of your community.

We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both. What is a life if not a series of negotiations between the old and the new?"

[Speech upon being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]

Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future.