Our article discusses the presence of quotes of foreign origin in the epistolar series Black on White by Constantin Negruzzi. We emphasize that, in order to define the Romanian realia, the writer establishes a necessary connection with the Other, understood as a literary and cultural alterity, with which he collaborates efficiently. Examining the texts of this series, the thematic and value of which are not homogeneous, we find that over 30 epistles include an impressive number of references to historical, literary and cultural realia from other regions. The frequency of this type of insertions in the author's letters denotes direct connection to the European historical or cultural-literary area. The cuttings (most of them originating in universal culture, history, and universal literature) are included organically in the fabric of these texts of journalism, focusing in particular on the memoralistic element. Assembled harmoniously in the Negruzzian epic structures, the fragments in question often maintain the original language and indicate to the author, appearing in full, fragmentarily, paraphrased or allusively. Quotations - titles of works, names of mythological, literary or historical characters, phraseological phrases, aphorisms, fragments of famous literary works, etc. - become effective in both form and content. Signaling the author's erudition and his dialogue with other cultural and literary spaces, all reveal the conciseness and plasticity of the expression. Framed by Gérard Genette in the space of transtextuality, these connections are a productive way of constructing the epic statement, the other image becoming a way to resolve the evoked native realia. Thus, there is a transfer of significance from alterity to the reflected identity.