The knowledge is a time traveler—because our idea of that person is affected by our new knowledge.

“I think the political responsibility of the fan is to challenge that memory—challenge the desire for nostalgia and, in doing that, challenge the soundtracks that have latched onto this nostalgia.”

The genius is a proposition. He’s a fantasy that we have collectively. The genius isn’t so much a kind of person as a status of person: a person who can do whatever he wants.

The idea of the Past functions in the same way the word “monster” does—it serves to separate us from all that is worst about humanity.

The problem with broadcasting, or with art, is that the flow only occurs in one direction. From the speaker to the receiver; from the artist to the audience. Telepathy, perfect union, is what we seek. Art—unlike broadcasting or the internet—becomes a meaningful stand-in for that union. The artist undergoes the rigor of making, and that creates the

The sometimes-truth is that we are interested in and, yes, even attracted to bad people.

Also other, more important forgettings and failures: children’s homework left unchecked, parents left un-telephoned, spousal sex un-had. Those things have to get broken for the book to get written.

There’s no denying the horror of Polanski’s backstory—after all, two of the terrors of the twentieth century happened to him, personally.

What follows logically from there is the idea that the artist ought to be free in all his doings.