Quotes from Milan Kundera

How was she to reconcile men's desire with the desire to be beautiful in their eyes? At first she had tried for a compromise (desperate journeys abroad, where nobody knew her and no indiscretion could betray her); then, later on, she had gone radical and sacrificed her erotic life to her beauty.

È questa la cosa spaventosa: il passato di cui ricordiamo è senza tempo. Impossibile rivivere un amore come rileggendo un libro o rivedendo un film

Tomas se disait: coucher avec une femme et dormir avec elle, voilà deux passions non seulement différentes mais presque contradictoires. L'amour ne se manifeste pas par le désir de faire l'amour (ce désir s'applique à une innombrable mutitude de femmes) mais par le désir du sommeil partagé (ce désir-là ne concerne qu'une seule femme).

Tener un hijo significa manifestar que se está de acuerdo con el hombre. Si tengo un hijo, es como si dijera: He nacido, he experimentado la vida y he comprobado que es tan buena que merece ser repetida.

Perché le domande veramente serie sono solo quelle che possono essere formulate da un bambino. Solo le domande più ingenue sono veramente serie. Sono le domande per cui non esiste risposta. Una domanda per la quale non esiste risposta è una barriera oltre la quale non è possibile andare. In altri termini: sono proprio le domande per le quali non esiste risposta che segnano i limiti della possibilità umane e tracciano i confini dell'esistenza umana.

Ze stelde zich op als een ordinair wijf dat niet wist hoe ze hem moest kwetsen.

for the first time in his life, sex is located away from all danger, away from conflict and drama, away from persecution, away from any accusation, away from worries; he has nothing to take care of, love is taking care of him, love as he's always wanted it and never had it: love-repose; love-oblivion; love-desertion; love-carefreeness; love-meaningless.

L'insignifiance, mon ami, c'est l'essence de l'existence. Elle est avec nous partout et toujours. Elle est présente même là où personne ne veut la voir : dans les horreurs, dans les luttes sanglantes, dans les pires malheurs. Cela exige souvent du courage pour la reconnaître dans des conditions aussi dramatiques et pour l'appeler par son nom. Mais il ne s'agit pas seulement de la reconnaître, il faut l'aimer, l'insignifiance, il faut apprendre à l'aimer.

I regimi criminali non furono creati da criminali ma da entusiasti, convinti di aver scoperto l'unica strada per il paradiso. Essi difesero con coraggio questa strada, giustiziando per questo molte persone. In seguito, fu chiaro che il paradiso non esisteva e che gli entusiasti erano quindi degli assassini.

Lermontov became a soldier, escaping from her grandmother and her troublesome love. He exchanged the pen, which is the key to one's soul, for a pistol, which is the key to the gates of the world.

Perhaps New York's unintentional beauty is much richer and more varied than the excessively strict and composed beauty of human design. But it's not our European beauty. It's an alien world.

The situation is very slightly solemn and thus embarrassing, as are all such situations when after the initial lovemaking, the lovers confront a future they are suddenly required to take on.

Some ideas have the force of a bomb exploding.

and even if she did find them ugly, she would never say so, because flattery had long since become second nature to her

The novel's spirit is the spirit of complexity. . . . the novel's spirit is the spirit of continuity. . . . a thing made to last, to connect the past with the future.

Hasta ayer había pensado que iba a ser un momento de alivio. Que se iría contento. Que abandonaría un sitio en el que había nacido por error y del que no formaba parte. Pero en ese momento sabía ya que se iba de su única patria y que no tenía otra.

And I felt fear. Fear of that bleak horizon, fear of that destiny. I felt my soul shriveling, I felt it retreating, and I was frightened by the thought that it could not escape its encirclement.

But is not an event in fact more significant and noteworthy the greater the number of fortuities necessary to bring it about? Chance and chance alone has a message for us. everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us.

What is a novel if not a trap for catching a hero?

They were happy not in spite of their sadness but thanks to it.

Before beauty disappears entirely from the earth, it will go on existing for a while as a mistake.

Cel care doreÈ™te s?-È™i p?r?seasc? locul în care tr?ieÈ™te nu e un om fericit.

when it's a question of wahre Liebe, true love, the beloved hardly matters.

I understood that there was no escaping the memories, that I was surround by them.