I have not the least hesitation in saying that I aspire to write in such a way that it would be impossible to an outsider to say whether I am at a given moment an American writing about England or an Englishman writing about America (dealing as I do with both countries,) and far from being ashamed of such an ambiguity I should be exceedingly proud of it, for it ivould be highly civilized.

—Letter to William James (1888)