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If all human production (aesthetic or otherwise) has its documentary aspect (i.e., it can be associated, by a knowledgeable reader, with a time and place), does this endanger its aesthetic aspects per se? It is the richness of the pattern that is aesthetically at stake. How many art histories does it take to make us understand that reference (a use context) and historicity are not the same?

— Samuel R. Delany Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

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More quotes by Samuel R. Delany

Oh, for the rebirth of an educational system where understanding was an essential part of knowledge.

Nova (1968)

“As time progresses,” Lump stated, “people learn. That’s the only hope.”

Empire Star (1966)

Bear in mind that the novel—no matter how intimate, psychological, or subjective—is always a historical projection of its own time.

Nova (1968)

What real power can buy, of course, is anonymity.

Neveryóna (1983)

And who’s to say where life ceases and theater begins—

Triton (1976)

All Samuel R. Delany quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel R. Delany (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.