the word 'I'

We set up a word at the point at which our ignorance begins, at which we can see no further, eg., the word 'I", the word 'do', the word 'suffer':- these are perhaps the horizon of our knowledge, but not 'truths'.

-John Banville

What controls the effectiveness of a writer's use of words is not the capacity to clasp meaning tightly, it is an almost tactile knowledge of the layout of their property lines, and even more, their litigations over common ownership. For the writer, almost everything in the word is a border, and almost nothing is contained.

- Julien Gracq