“Of course, literature must operate within boundaries. (Like all human activities. The only boundless activity is being dead.) [149]
… Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification.
… It is the essence of the wisdom furnished by literature (and the plurality of literary achievement) to help us understand that, whatever is happening, something else is always going on. I am haunted by that ‘something else.’ I am haunted by the conflict of rights and values that I cherish. For instance that ––sometimes–– telling the truth does not further justice. That ––sometimes–– the furthering of justice may entail suppressing a good part of the truth. [151]
… If literature itself, this great enterprise that has been conducted (within our purview) for nearly three millennia, embodies a wisdom –– and I think it does and is at the heart of the importance we give to literature–– it is by demonstrating the multiple nature of our private and communal desires. It will remind us that there can be contradictions,sometimes irreducible conflicts, among the values we most cherish. (This is what is meant by ‘tragedy.’) It will remind us of the ‘also’ and ‘the something else.’ [153]
… Information will never replace illumination. [154]”
— Sontag, Susan. “The Conscience of Words: The Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech.” In At the same time: essays and speeches. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. 145-155.
