“It’s one thing if everyone wears the same shoes or drinks the same soda. But the world of literature is the last place in which globalization should mean homogeneity.”

The pure and the obscene, and shows, in this discomfiting, hypnotic work, just how rarely those categories are what they seem. The translation is excellent – what a rare relief.

I studied mathematics which is the madness of reason.

Vocation is different from talent. One can have vocation and not have talent; one can be called and not know how to go.

Like her friend and admirer Clarice Lispector, Hilda Hilst was a passionate explorer of the sacred and the profane.

Free speech means the right to shout ‘theatre’ in a crowded fire.

I’ll probably always love him. Doesn’t mean I can ever trust him again. That doesn’t make a relationship.

It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.

I’m just a demon that means well. Freelance for God, but do the work of Satan.

I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I’m just marketing my work!

A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.

I mean, but obviously, in people’s eyes, it still – it can still link Islam to terrorism. I mean, why does it make a difference that they’re white?

That’s the biggest problem existing in this country! People are always mixing up the word free and freedom. Free is something you get for nothin.’ Freedom is a responsibility.