Amateur

“The intellectual's spirit as an amateur can enter and transform the merely professional routine most of us go through into something much more lively and radical; instead of doing what one is supposed to do one can ask why one does it, who benefits from it, how can it reconnect with a personal project and original thoughts.”

“There is no getting around authority and power, and no getting around the intellectual's relationship to them. How does the intellectual address authority: as a professional supplicant or as its unrewarded, amateurish conscience?”

“As a way of maintaining relative intellectual independence, having the attitude of an amateur instead of a professional is a better course.”

“In the end, I am moved by causes and ideas that I can actually choose to support because they conform to values and principles that I believe in.”