“The more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the more easily is one able to judge it, and the whole world as well, with the spiritual detachment and generosity necessary for true vision. The more easily, too, does one assess oneself and alien cultures with the same combination of intimacy and distance.”
― Orientalism
― Orientalism
“exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”
― Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
― Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
Dieter’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Dieter’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Dieter
Lists liked by Dieter
































