"Walter Benjamin's description of the theatrical character of the townscape of Naples is an exact picture of the combined stage and auditorium in Rear Window: "'Buildings are used as a popular stage. They are all divided into innumerable, simultaneously animated theatres. Balcony, courtyard, window, gateway, staircase, roof are the same time stage and boxes.'"

From Pallasmaa: "Geometry of Terror" p. 147 on Walter Benjamin in "Reflections" p. 167

"The field of vision has always seemed to me comparable to the ground of an archeological excavation."

Paul Virilio. L'horizon negatif. p.1