The writer cannot abandon himself simply to inspiration, and feign innocence vis a vis language, because language is never innocent.

A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates, the writer functions totally in unison with society, and expresses society's feelings, beliefs, and hopes in perfect harmony.

As I began to discover my own truth and endeavored to possess it with clarity, I became more and more alienated from that which my companions held, or professed to hold.

And with each day that passed, the gulf broadened and my isolation became more accentuated. In such a situation, the discovery that my experience was not unique, that it had also been that of other Spanish intellectuals, became very important for me.

The writer cannot abandon himself simply to inspiration, and feign innocence vis a vis language, because language is never innocent.

In Count Julian I simply proposed to create a text which would allow for diverse levels of reading.

Marks of Identity is, among other things, the expression of the process of alienation in a contemporary intellectual with respect to his own country.

But the Spain which emerged around 1960, beginning with its economic miracle, created by the invasion of tourists, can no longer result in impassioned dedication on the part of its intellectuals, and even less on the part of foreign intellectuals.

When I write now I do not invent situation, characters, or actions, but rather structures and discursive forms, textual groupings which are combined according to secret affinities among themselves, as in architecture or the plastic arts.

And it is because a series of elements in Spanish life which operate today the same way as they did in the times of Blanco White made obvious my relationship with him, based on a similarity in Spain's condition.

In my opinion, the most significant works of the twentieth century are those that rise beyond the conceptual tyranny of genre; they are, at the same time, poetry, criticism, narrative, drama, etc.

My exile was not only a physical one, motivated exclusively by political reasons; it was also a moral, social, ideological and sexual exile.

I not only lived physically away from my native land, but the values and critical judgments of those closest to me became stranger and stranger.

In the Europe which was created by the Second World War, divided into two blocks, each in need of a revolution that would end the abuses and injustices of capitalism and the privileges of a bureaucratic caste, collective faith does not exist.

For a country is not merely a piece of earth; it is, above all, a compendium of social, cultural, and historical factors which begin to acquire sense and order through the process of writing.

The fundamental purpose of a novel like Count Julian is to achieve the unity of object and means of representation, the fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language.

Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase are fruits of innocence and blessedness.

In an age robbed of religious symbols, going to the shops replaces going to the church. We have a free choice, but at a price. We can win experience, but never achieve innocence. Marx knew that the epic activities of the modern world involve not lance and sword but dry goods.

I might have some character traits that some might see as innocence or naive. That's because I discovered peace and happiness in my soul. And with this knowledge, I also see the beauty of human life.

The Architect is just one of a series of works which examine the confrontation of innocence and experience, illustrating the complex ethics of power that exist between reader and writer, critic and artist, the human and the divine.

Every life is march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.

It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.

It doesn't bother me that Seven has such an overtly sexual presence, because she has no concept of what effect that physical package would have on some male member of the crew. That's what's fun, her innocence.

Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?

I would certainly say that films like Time Code and the Loss of Sexual Innocence were far more rewarding to me in terms of being able to move forward as a filmmaker.

Once you start asking questions, innocence is gone.

Never resist a sentence you like, in which language takes its own pleasure and in which, after having abused it for so long, you are stupefied by its innocence.

I think that freshness and that innocence is something that is missing from a lot of female singers. I'm certainly not denying that I'm young, but I'm not fluff.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

I think it's hard to write about children and to have an idea of innocence.

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

There is no aphrodisiac like innocence.

The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.

When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child, regulating it.

The only thing I was trying to portray was serenity. Also, innocence, vulnerability and elegance.

Whether we knew many who died on September 11 or personally knew none, we all lost something on that day. Innocence. Security. A trust that our homeland would always be safe.

Ignorance is not innocence but sin.

Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.

Being part of the natural world reminds me that innocence isn't ever lost completely; we just need to maintain our goodness to regain it.

People are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

America fell in love with the innocence of a kid who just was honest, saying, I did the best I could, and I had no formal training.

Anxiety is the beginning of conscience, which is the parent of the soul but is not compatible with innocence.

What innocence, may I ask, is being played here when it is known that this virtuous damsel has already got a dozen illegitimate children?

Where I live, nobody who's fourteen is having sex and doing major drugs. And I think if you see it in the movies, you may be influenced by it. I think it's so important to preserve your innocence.

Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.