Quotes from Christa Wolf

Coldness in everything. It comes from a long way off; it gets into everything. One must get out of the way before it reaches the core. If it does that, one won't feel even the coldness any more. Do you see what I mean?

In the middle of a war you think of nothing but how it will end. And put off living. When large numbers of people do that, it creates a vacuum within us which the war flows in to fill.

Das Ungenügen mit sich selbst ist der eigentliche Stachel.

The happy times of pristine thinking and open minds, always favorable for beginnings, belonged now to the past, and we knew it.

Ci abituiamo di nuovo a dormire tranquilli. Viviamo senza risparmiarci, come ce ne fosse anche troppa di questa strana sostanza ch'è la vita, come se non dovesse avere mai fine.

Manfred sapeva assai bene che esiste una sorta di bravura che lascia del tutto fredda la persona in gamba.

In paese incontrò alcuni studenti in ferie. Ci si salutava, restando insieme per qualche minuto. una traccia di imbarazzo malgrado la reciproca confidenza. La consapevolezza che anche l'altro avvertiva che l'infanzia era definitivamente trascorsa.

I ask myself what gives a person, what gave that woman, the right to confront us with decisions that we are not equal to making, decisions that tear us apart and leave us feeling inferior, incompetent, guilty.

Ich fürchtete das Schlimmste, nicht, weil ich den Plan der Griechen Zug um Zug durchschaute, sondern weil ich den haltlosen Übermut der Troer sah. Ich schrie, bat, beschwor und redete in Zungen.

I can move to the window and see the sky and the clouds above the tall old trees of the park as much as I want. That is the advantage of being alive; maybe not a great advantage, but still.

Circe: Do you know what they're looking for, Medea? she asked me. They're looking for a woman who'll tell them that they're not guilty of anything; that the gods, whom they worship by chance, compel them in their undertakings. That the track of blood they leave behind is proper to their male nature as the gods have determined it.

In any case, he made me think the unheard-of: The world could go on after our destruction.

Che altro se non tempo, fertilità del suolo, morìa di bestie, malattie - volevo strappare la gente al circolo dentro cui era inserita? Dentro cui stava bene, non cercava nient'altro? Al che io, scattando: perché non conosce niente altro. Perché c'è qualcuno che lascia alla gente solo questa specie di domande.

Los hombres, débiles, espoleado para ser vencedores, nos necesitan como víctimas para poder sentirse siquiera.

Di cosa non son capaci di persuaderci, queste donne, quando si mettono d'accordo per lasciarci brancolare nel buio.

bir kahraman? sevemem ben. bir heykele dönüÅŸtüÄŸünü görmek istemiyorum.

ac?, bize birbirimizi hat?rlats?n. sonradan kar??la?t???m?zda ondan tan?yaca??z birbirimizi, bir sonra varsa e?er.

öldürmek ve ölmek aras?nda üçüncü bir ÅŸey var: yaÅŸamak.

Schwer, langsam, aber endgültig habe ich mich von dem Glauben gelöst, dass unsere menschlichen Geschicke an den Gang der Gestirne geknüpft sind. Daß dort Seelen wohnen, ähnlich den unseren, die unser Dasein betrifft, und sei es, indem sie die Fäden, die es halten, mißgünstig verwirren.

Ich glaube, daß jener Apparat, der die Aufnahme und Verarbeitung von Wirklichkeit zu tätigen hat, von Literatur geformt wird

I felt there was no point in telling anyone anything that was happening inside of me.

It didn't happen the way one can tell it; but if once can tell it as it was, then one wasn't in on it, or it all happened so long ago that candor comes too easily. In order to make the story tellable, one has to separate and put into sequence events which in reality were so entangled as to be inexplicable...

Aber alles, was wir aussprechen, muss wahr sein, weil wir es empfinden. Da haben Sie mein poetisches Geständnis

Besides, my confidence that every person can be cured of his or her false beliefs through evidence has meanwhile significantly diminished. Oh, Mr. Brecht, I often think, people can really see an apple fall to the ground an simultaneously believe it when someone claims: It isn't falling. And there it is still the matter of more obvious natural laws!