The writer’s task is to bear witness.
作家的任务是见证。
And the thing about a successful life is that a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people; chiefly, if you're a man, your father, and if you're a woman, your mother. Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years. No one's quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe it's true.
故事的力量在于它能够将我们彼此连接起来。
When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.