Where civilization entailed the corruption of barbarian virtues and the creation of a dependent people, I was opposed to civilization... - J. M. Coetzee

He thought of himself not as something heavy that left tracks behind it, but if anything, as a speck upon the surface of an earth too deeply asleep to notice the scratch of ant feet, the rasp of butterfly teeth, the tumbling of dust

I will leave behind my terraces and walls," he said. "They will be enough. They will be more than enough.”

Don’t expect sympathy from me, David, and don’t expect sympathy from anyone else either. No sympathy, no mercy, not in this day and age. Everyone’s hand will be against you, and why not? Really, how could you