“One who forced another was beneath contempt. One who needed to was despised”

Some Men are More Perfect Than Others (1973)

Cows, Kids, and Co-ops

11 August 2017 text to mother reported on 4 December 2018 by CBS 19 https://web.archive.org/web/20181205123640/https:/www.cbs19news.com/content/news/Text-messages-calls-allowed-as-evidence-in-Fields-trial-501893992.html

Without Remorse (1993), p. 231
1990s

Source: Letter to his daughter (1978), p. 63.
Context: Tin-pot dictators have ravaged Asia, Latin America and Africa. In the aftermath, they have done more to promote communism than the works of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Mao. They are the worst tyrants of the post-colonial period. They have destroyed time-honoured institutions and treated their people like animals. They have caused internal divisions and external confusion. The dictator is the one animal who needs to be caged. He betrays his profession and his constitution. He betrays the people and destroys human values. He destroys culture. He binds the youth. He makes the structure collapse. He rules by fluke and freak. He is the scourge and the ogre. He is a leper. Anyone who touches him also becomes a leper. He is the upstart who is devoid of ideals and ideology. Not a single one of them has made a moment's contribution to history.

On writing in “‘What is a heart? You have an organ in your body and you have a symbol of love’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/28/maylis-de-kerangal-interview-wellcome-prize-writing in The Guardian (2017 Apr 28)

Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982)