"You need to read this book, this strange book: Writing Degree Zero. You need to be defeated by it. And then you need (like Barthes) to begin a revolution." –Adam Thirlwell, from his foreword
"A sweeping account of French literature." –
Kenneth R. Weinstein, The Washington Times "Barthes's myths about literature are extremely talented, even masterful . . . They acknowledge basic antinomies that even the most gifted minds addressing the same subject, such as Sartre, have glossed over." –
Susan Sontag