"Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few"

“I didn't know how to go about preparing for the part of someone who can't remember who he is. The frustration angle is written in, but there's also this incredible passive state”

“Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn't make that up.”

“You don’t think ahead in years or months: you think about this hour, and maybe the next. Anything else is speculation.”

“Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.”

“The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.”

Source : "The Death of the Author" (1968)

“One year's poor form remains a blip but if it happens next year, you can say it's a trend.”

“The older I get, the less I negotiate. When you first start out, it's 90 percent negotiation and 10 percent suggestion. When you get to a certain point, those figures reverse.”

“The risk for a woman who considers her helpless children her "job" is that the children's growth toward self-sufficiency may be experienced as a refutation of the mother's indispensability, and she may unconsciously sabotage their growth as a result.”