Fire

The Banquet, Rene Magritte, 1958

» I was thinking about the challenge that life and death lay down to writing. For writing moves at the pace of the hand. And life and death go by in a flash. We catch fire, surprised. Writing is far behind. How are the fiery moments to be grasped? How can that fire be caught in our hands? Besides, we had better catch the fire in our hands quickly. Because if we catch the fire in our hands quickly enough, we won’t get burned. Fire grasped with the speed of fire: that’s how it must be done. To write.

— In October 1991…, Stigmata: Escaping Texts, Hélène Cixous;