We have already seen that any state of mind, however opportunistic, can entirely fill up our attention, which is much the same thing as saying that it can form, in its brief and absolute term, our essence. Which, translated into the language of literature, means that to try to express oneself and to want to express the whole of life are one and the same thing.
J. L. Borges, 1922, (trans. EA) from Selected Non-fictions
