"You could tell people what is portrayed in Rembrandt’s ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’ and move them deeply. But the telling would have little to do with the experience of looking at the unique disposition of color, light, space, scale, line, texture, brushwork in Rembrandt’s painting…It is the same with a work in words. Words have color, shade, tone, texture, rhythm, pacing, disposition, structure; they can be unexpected, infinitely suggestive, mercurial; they can also beat and repeat like a drum."
~ Richard Pevear