“I was struck by the way in which meanings are historically attached to words: it is so accidental, so remote, so twisted. A word is like a schoolgirl’s room – a complete mess – so the great thing is to make out a way of seeing it all as ordered, as right, as inferred and following.”

“I was struck by the way in which meanings are historically attached to words: it is so accidental, so remote, so twisted. A word is like a schoolgirl’s room – a complete mess – so the great thing is to make out a way of seeing it all as ordered, as right, as inferred and following.”

— William H. Gass