Quotes from László Krasznahorkai

Culture, then, only truly becomes culture when it is embodied in someone.

every human culture is created by fear

If you will pardon my arbitrary, presumptuous use of the first person plural, then allow me to put it this way: unable to find any ultimate meaning we feel crushed enough already to be fed up with a literature that pretends there is such a thing and keeps hinting at some ultimate meaning.

because he came here on the wrong day, because he was born in the wrong time, because he had been born, it was all wrong from the very beginning, he should have known, should have sensed, that today was not the day to begin anything, nor was tomorrow, there were no days before him now, as there had never even been any, just as there was not and never would be a day...

at this point, we must refocus our attention on this, as fear is what defines human existence, ...you will see that fear is the deepest element that can be grasped in this organic and inorganic world, and there's nothing else other than fear, because nothing else bears within it such dreadful strength

we must never lose sight of that gaze with which we look at things.

The unchained workers of decay were waiting in a dormant state for the necessary conditions to be established, as soon enough they would be, when they might recommence their interrupted struggle, that predetermined, merciless assault in the course of which they would dismantle whatever had been alive once and once only, reducing it into tiny insignificant pieces under the eternally silent cover of death.

Se gandi iar la cotet si la porci, intrucat simti ca la fel cum cei care nu banuiesc ca din providenta ce pluteste deasupra zilelor noastre o sa ramana doar lumina de pe cutitul cu care se injunghie porcul, tot asa nici noi nu banuim nimic, si nici n-o sa aflam vreodata ceva despre acest infricosator adio.

Sheltered spots tend to increase your fear, the fear of the unknown perils of outside, a fear that simply regenerates and reinforces itself until it becomes overwhelming, making you incapable of drawing conclusions about what's really taking place outside.

I would leave this earth and these stars, because I would take nothing with me, because I've looked into what's coming, and I don't need anything from here.

Isi marturisi ca viata lui fara consistenta, care numara 52 de ani, care alunecase pe langa evenimente, e tot atat de neinsemnata in lupta indarjita a marilor destine, a marilor cariere, pe cat de imperceptibil e fumul unei tigari in in vagonul unui tren aflat in flacari.

Evil exists, and the good, sad to say, can never catch up with it.

good can never catch up with evil, because with the gap between good and evil there is no hope whatsoever.

la mera pronunciación de estas dos palabras [...] llega a ser algo tan odioso, tan repelente que basta con decir una sola vez y para que uno enseguida sienta unas ganas tremendas de vomitar [...]

This was a vital part of the process of simple realization, the realization that knowledge led either to wholesale illusion or to irrational depression.

For minutes on end he could not tell whether he was really hearing howls of pain, or whether it was simply that his years of long, exhausting work had rendered him incapable of distinguishing between the general noise and ancient prehistoric screams that were somehow preserved in time and now were being raised by the rain, like dust.

Halics's whole body felt as though it had lost definition and, as for his coat, it had lost whatever resistance to water it once had nor could it protect him from the roaring cataract of fate, or, as he tended to say, "the rain of death in the heart," a rain that beat, day and night, against both his withered heart and defenseless organs.

it's precisely the infinite that casts light upon how the brain thinks, and how clever it is in showing us something that seems real when it's merely an abstraction, namely that brain introduced or employed to great effect those methods of distortion, that dislocation

this epidemic of fear was not born out of some genuine, daily increasing certainty of disaster but of an infection of the imagination whose susceptibility to its own terrors might eventually lead to an actual catastrophe, in other words the false premonition that a man who had lost his bearings might succumb to once the inner structure of his life

But nothing could assuage the unconscious fury of our new and tragic understanding, our sense of having been cheated, our fear, for, however we looked for it, we could not find a fit object for our disgust and despair, and so we attacked everything in our way with an equal and infinite passion…

Orele treceau greu, noroc ca era de mult stricat ceasul, nu se auzea ticaitul monoton care sa le aminteasca de trecerea anevoioasa a timpului.

Puesto que se enteraría por su propia experiencia de que el jardín era el perfeccionamiento supremo de la idea del jardín, ya que la mejor forma de definirlo era afirmar que su creador había "alcanzado la simplicidad", al tratarse de un jardín, escribía el autor con notable apasionamiento, que expresaba lo infinitamente simple mediante fuerzas infinitamente complejas.

They're waiting patiently, like the long-suffering lot they are, in the firm conviction that someone has conned them. They are waiting, belly to the ground, like cats at pig-killing time, hoping for scraps

végsÅ' soron az egyszer? bizalmat abban, hogy van hagyomány, hogy ez a hagyomány a megfigyelésre, az ismétlésre és a természet belsÅ' rendjének és a dolgok természetének a tiszteletére épül, s hogy ennek a hagyománynak sem az értelme, sem a tisztasága kétségbe nem vonható.