The novel is a machine for generating meaning.
小说是生成意义的机器。
Language is not a tool for describing reality, but a reality in itself.
语言不是描述现实的工具，而是现实本身。
The task of the writer is to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.
作家的任务是使熟悉的事物变得陌生，使陌生的事物变得熟悉。
We are all characters in a story we did not write.
我们都是自己未写的故事中的角色。
The real is always mediated through the symbolic.
真实总是通过象征来中介。
To write is to confront the chaos of existence and impose some order upon it.
写作就是面对存在的混乱并强加某种秩序。
The past is not dead, it is not even past.
过去并未死去，它甚至还未过去。
We are all trapped in the web of language, but it is also our only means of escape.
我们都困在语言的网中，但它也是我们唯一的逃脱手段。
Every act of communication is a kind of performance.
The novel is not just a mirror to the world, but a hammer with which to shape it.
小说不仅是世界的镜子，更是塑造世界的锤子。