I Am One Of Those

If This Work Seems So Threatening, This Is Because It Isn't Simply Eccentric Or Strange, But Competent, Rigorously Argued, And Carrying Conviction.

The Trace I Leave To Me Means At Once My Death, To Come Or Already Come, And The Hope That It Will Survive Me. It Is Not An Ambition Of Immortality; It Is Fundamental. I Leave Here A Bit Of Paper, I Leave, I Die; It Is Impossible To Exit This Structure; It Is The Unchanging Form Of My Life. Every Time I Let Something Go, I Live My Death In Writing.

There Is Nothing Outside Of The Text. [fr., Il N'y A Pas De Hors-texte.]

These Years Of The Ecole Normale Were An Ordeal. Nothing Was Handed To Me On The First Try.

I Am One Of Those Marranes Who No Longer Say They Are Jews Even In The Secret Of Their Own Hearts.