“There is no such thing as life without bloodshed … the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.”
— Cormac McCarthy, as quoted in Richard B. Woodward, ‘Cormac McCarthy’s Venomous Fiction’, The New York Times, April 19, 1992.