Quotes from Elfriede Jelinek

erich therefore thinks of two kinds of women, when he thinks about women at all, which he only does, when he feels a need, which one cannot satisfy by thinking anyway.

Stealing isn't so easy, often it's hard work, otherwise we'd all be doing it.

terwijl de mannen mooi rijpen en ouder beginnen te worden en zich te goed doen aan de alcohol - die moet hen sterk en kankerloos houden -, duurt de doodstrijd van hun vrouwen vaak jaren en jaren, vaak ook nog zo lang dat ze de doodsstrijd van hun dochters kunnen meemaken. de vrouwen beginnen hun dochters te haten en willen hen zo gauw mogelijk ook laten sterven als zij zelf eens zijn gestorven, daarom: man gezocht.

I, however, have really never been anywhere yet, not because some sins or other could wrap themselves around me there, but because I'd rather sin at home, where God even announces the weather to me in advance on TV, slowly, so that I can write it down, in case it's worth the proper guilt. Sinning is enough, there's no need for surprises as well.

There are no distinctions at all any more, as far as entertainments are concerned, it's big and beautiful everywhere where we are. It would be a great help to us, if we could be everywhere at the same time. And here it is already, your entertainment!

The poet is a king in his realm. His is empire of imagination, in which there are unlimited mansions.

There is too much too much too much of everything. We have enough too. More than enough. We've had enough.

nhi?u ng??i may ch? ?? tâm m?t n?a t?i công vi?c, n?a kia ph?n cho gia ?ình. m?t vài ng??i hoàn toàn ?? tâm ??n công vi?c, nh?ng nh?ng ng??i nh? th? không ph?i là nh?ng ng??i làm vi?c t?t nh?t.

n?u m?t ng??i có s? m?nh thì ?ó là ?àn ông, còn n?u m?t ng??i ch?u s? m?nh thì ?ó là ?àn bà.

ti?c là dòng ??i th??ng phóng ô tô ?i kh?i, quá nhanh ??i v?i xe ??p

Submission to something you didn't preach yourself is no good, I quote. Because Man must burst his ridiculous bonds, which consist of what is supposedly current reality with a prospect of a future reality of scarcely any greater value.

Ah, lust! How one would like to make it the cornerstone of self! But I wouldn't go ahead and build on it if I were you.

Không h? ghê t?m mà v?i tâm tr?ng h? h?i, Erika nói suy cho cùng b?n ch?t c?a tình yêu c?ng chính là c?c ?i?m c?a s? t?m th??ng.

The moment workers can afford too little they rebel. The last time this was a real danger was 1950. Communists took advantage of supply problems and stirred up gullible people against their very own country.

Let me write it down, quite unambiguously: paper could cut me open as a paper knife slits paper. I'd like to meet the person who could make a new woman of me out of the things I say.

Love points the way. Desire is its ignorant advisor.

brigitte wants to have her future made. she cannot produce it herself.

she must wait, till someone takes her, but afterwards, and then let herself be taken, but only afterwards. because if, like you, she lets herself be taken before, then she can count herself lucky afterwards, if anyone takes her at all.

then stay at home, paula, and become a housewife and help me with the housework and with the animals and wait upon your dada as i wait upon him and also wait upon your brother, when he comes from the wood, why should you be better off than me, I was never better off than my mother, who was a housewife, because in those days there weren't any sales assistants here yet, and my dada would have beaten me to death if there had been any.

and he said, i have to stay at home and help momma and attend to him, when he comes from work and fetch the beer from the innkeeper, that takes eight minutes there and back, and if it takes longer, then i'll break your back. and why should you, my daughter, be better off than me?

men can be pigs, but also the opposite. what is the opposite of a pig?

it is not enough therefore, simply to surrender oneself brainlessly to love, when it knocks at the door, one must also calculate because of later life, which does sometimes follow.

it does not occur to brigitte to say leave me in peace. brigitte knows, there are so many woman who would like to turn a stranger's, her, brigitte's future into one of their own. so brigitte prefers to turn herself into an extension of heinz's limbs, into a part of heinz's body.

when paula asks one of the women, what she would like, then she would like something for the whole family, for example, a car, in which then the whole family sits, and in which the mother is forever waiting to get a chance to smack the child's fingers, to be able to justify her own presence.