"What sort of selves do literary works create? More broadly still, what kinds of selves does any manner of artwork create?"

"There is a deep-rooted folk concept of the human organism, which assumes that our bodies are pure and uncontaminated by outside matter."

"The primacy of the brain functions as a something of a barometer for how we have come to be governed."

"Selfhood is not only what allows us to mark our difference to others, it is also what permits us to share a perspective with them."