"Literature is not tennis or football, where international competition makes sense. It is intimately tied to the language and culture from which it emerges."

The Nobel Prize for Literature Is a Scandal All by Itself

"Literature is not tennis or football, where international competition makes sense. It is intimately tied to the language and culture from which it emerges. Literary style distinguishes itself by its distance from the other styles that surround it, implying a community of readers with a shared knowledge of other literary works, of standard language usage and cultural context. What sense does it make for a group from one culture — be it Swedish, American, Nigerian or Japanese — to seek to compare a Bolivian poet with a Korean novelist, an American singer-songwriter with a Russian playwright, and so on? Why would we even want them to do that?

As the Swedes squirm with embarrassment, the real butts of this farce are the critics who insist on taking the Nobel seriously. One might as well debate the choices of Roman Catholic cardinals when they announce a new saint. It really is time to grow up and concentrate on the books themselves, without this razzmatazz of winners and losers."