“Oh, ants, my sisters, good old honeydew-seekers! From close up you are sticky and shiny and gristly; and your nymphs have parasitic red mites stuck to them. You are too intent upon your chewing and gathering to listen to me, but I tell you that despite my warm feelings I really do not like you, and I cannot feel sorry for you in any way because there are too many of you and you are not cute at all. You eat too much of my forests; you are a rebellious tribe, and I will destroy you; I will poison your nests with sweet-smelling traps.” WayFeelsFeelingsToo MuchSweetLike YouRedSorryWarmStuckForestsDespiteCutePoisonMy SisterTrapsTribesGatheringSeekersRebelliousAntsNestsListen To MeChewingStickyNymphsFeel Sorry For You Author:William T. Vollmann
“We're living in what used to be Mexico, and there's this very fluid border feeling. You go a little bit south of Tijuana, for instance, into Ensenada, and it still seems kind of borderlike. And you go much farther, suddenly the prices are lower, the prostitution is different, the commerce is different, everything feels more "Mexican."” FeelsKindLittlesStillsDifferentFeelingsSeemsUsedBitsLittle BitSouthUsed To BeInstanceBordersMexicoCommerceMexicanProstitutionFluidE CommerceTijuana Author:William T. Vollmann
“There are parts of L.A. that feel very, very Mexican, and there are weird little enclaves of Northside in Mexico - Cancún for instance. So what is a border?” FeelsLittlesInstanceBordersMexicoMexican Author:William T. Vollmann
“I feel like I'm almost ready to write fiction about the border. But even after 10 years of writing nonfiction about it, I don't think I know quite enough to do it right.” ThinkingKnowsFeelsWritingYearsEnoughFictionReadyBordersNonfictionWriting Nonfiction Author:William T. Vollmann
“Whereas if I want to create a prostitute character now from memories of different prostitutes and inventing stuff, I can say, "this could happen," "this is quite plausible." But I don't feel I know enough about border life to do the latter.” IfsKnowsWantFeelsI CanDifferentEnoughCharacterHappensStuffMemoriesBordersLatterInventingPlausible Author:William T. Vollmann
“I studied Comparative Literature at Cornell. Structuralism was real big then. The idea of reading and writing as being this language game. There's a lot of appeal to that. It's nice to think of it as this playful kind of thing. But I think that another way to look at it is "Look, I just want to be sincere. I want to write something and make you feel something and maybe you will go out and do something." And it seems that the world is in such bad shape now that we don't have time to do nothing but language games. That's how it seems to me.” ThinkingWorldWayWantFeelsWritingLooksKindIdeasRealBigsSeemsReadingLiteratureGamesLanguageNiceShapesAppealsSincereAnother WayReading And WritingComparative LiteratureStructuralism Author:William T. Vollmann
