“We're getting closer to our nature.” — Clifford Geertz Quote

We're getting closer to our nature.

Gender consciousness has become involved in almost every intellectual field: history, literature, science, anthropology. There's been an extraordinary advance.

Anthropology never has had a distinct subject matter, and because it doesn't have a real method, there's a great deal of anxiety over what it is.

Younger anthropologists have the notion that anthropology is too diverse. The number of things done under the name of anthropology is just infinite; you can do anything and call it anthropology.

I don't write drafts. I write from the beginning to the end, and when it's finished, it's done.

The thing is, the Tulsa experience that I wrote about in 'The Outsiders' is closer to the universal experience than it would be if I wrote it from L.A. or New York. It's an everyman story.

I learned a lot about a traumatic situation and what it does to you. It really brings you closer to your family and your loved ones.

We will always have more to discover, more to invent, more to understand and that's much closer to art and literature than any science.

You work for such a long time to try and achieve something and then someone says you have to take nine months or a year off. You don't feel like you are getting any closer. It is hard for a while not to do anything, but that is what they are saying is the best thing for you. It is difficult to wake up and say there is not a lot I can do today.