Pessoa

"There's a thin sheet of glass between me and life. However clearly I see and understand life, I can't touch it."

-- Fernando Pessoa, "The Book of Disquiet"

Saul Bellow

“Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? The Proust of the Papuans? I’d be happy to read them.”

-- Saul Bellow

It was with that quotation that Bellow at one time found himself in a storm of controversy that ended up tarnishing his reputation. He was not a fan of the idea of multiculturalism in college curricula - the crowding out of dead famous white men for other diverse voices.

We are likely to hear a lot more buzz on Bellow, as it is the tenth anniversary of his death and we have a big biography coming out, one which strives to redeem the novelist's reputation. Lee Seigel, an admirer and fan, writes, "He saw the world the way the ancient Greeks must have seen the world: glistening with the postnatal dew of burgeoning consciousness, shimmering with fresh knowledge of first and last things." I guess the post-modern rainbowy world was not for Bellow.

[Source: Lee Seigel at Vulture.com]