Tissue of Quotations

One of the passages I was interested in discussing is from "The Death of the Author," page 146, particularly Barthes' statement that "The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture." I found this intriguing because it suggests that all writing is essentially collage. However, I didn't agree with Barthes' subsequent conclusion that this aspect of a text necessarily means that the Author is "dead." Rather, the text itself is only "a tissue of quotations" because it is reflecting its Author, since we as human beings are also products of all the various opinions and experiences that we have encountered. The thing we refer to as our "self" is really just a collage of different aspects of culture that we have accepted as "true" or "good." Thus, the text, as collage, is still very much tied to its Author, because it is the Author that determines just what "tissue of quotations" will be included in the text. No, perhaps the Author is not the true originator of these ideas any more than a carpenter is the originator of the tree that provides the wood used to make his or her creations. But that doesn't change the fact that without the carpenter, the chair would still be a block of wood. And though Barthes claims that "life never does more than imitate the book," without life, without the Author, the text would not be in existence, the "signs" that make up its tissue scattered, with no meaning at all, deferred or otherwise.