Being Alone With The World In Your Hands

Reading is absenting yourself from the world
reading is finding the world again
reading is being alone with the world in your hands
reading is being alone in the company of others
reading is thinking before acting
reading is taking the time to think
reading is imagining
imagining is putting yourself in the Other's place
reading is an act of humanity
reading is being with the other and with yourself
reading and writing is the beginning of belonging to the world
everyone should be able to read and write in their own language
reading is being alone and yet being part of the world

Writing is responding to this solitude
without filling it
without imagining that you are making up for it
writing is facing the void
writing is being at the reader's side
not in his place or above him
writing is relying on intelligence
writing is also being alone
but not totally isolated
writing is seeking the Other in yourself
you can turn it into an illness
you can turn it into a job
you can turn it into a rapture
writing is uncontrollable but it is grammatical
writing is asking questions with no answer
writing is answering questions that have not been asked
writing is rejecting the words of harmony as well as those of discord
writing is sowing disorder by reviving language
writing is an act of humanity and a curse
writing keeps me upright but also digs gulfs

- Marie Darrieussecq (French Writer, Psychoanalyst)