Quotes from Heinrich Boll

Schmal-der schmalste Weg den wir kennen, ist der auf der Schneide eines Messers...

The ones you love are the ones you're bound to hurt the most, that's the law of love.

The new government decided the best way to rectify this was to outlaw abortion and prohibit the sale or display of contraceptives in the Weimar constitution of 1919. During a time of unimaginable scarcity and fear, women were forced into motherhood. They were forced to make do, and the pressure to repopulate the nation, to birth and raise a new generation of mothers and soldiers, was enormous. It was the most important thing a woman could possibly do: Be the Good Mother.

His pain is too great for tears. Some pain is so great that tears are powerless.

Soon. Soon. Soon. Soon. When is Soon? What a terrible word: Soon. Soon can mean in one second, Soon can mean in one year. Soon is a terrible word. This Soon compresses the future, shrinks it, offers no certainty, no certainty whatever, it stands for absolute uncertainty. Soon is nothing and Soon is a lot. Soon is everything, Soon is death…

I went into the kitchen, took the cognac out of the icebox and had a long drink from it. It didn't help. I had another, that didn't help either.

Embarrassment seems to be the sole means of communication between parents and children.

This Soon is like a thunderclap. This little word is like the spark that sets off the thunderstorm, and suddenly, for the thousandth part of a second, the whole world is bright beneath this word.

Your voice sounds as if you don't think much of the nineteenth century." "Right," I said, "I detest it." "You're wrong," he said, "nonsense. Even the architecture wasn't as bad as it's made out to be.

Chi trova gusto a mangiare non è ancora perduto

I genitori di mio nonno dovettero lasciare il villaggio, la tomba fresca della loro piccola: s misero a intrecciare cesti di vimini, non restarono a lungo in nessun luogo perché li addolorava vedere come dappertutto il pendolo della giustizia battesse falso e sbagliato.

Udii il suo respiro; non so per quanto tempo, ma lo udii chiaramente, poi lei riattaccò. Io sarei rimasto a lungo così, con il ricevitore in mano, solo per sentirla respirare.

Güzel bir söz vard?r: hiçbir ÅŸey. Hiçbir ÅŸey düÅŸünme. BaÅŸbakan? düÅŸünme, Katolikleri de düÅŸünme. Küvette aÄŸlayan, terliklerine kahve damlayan o palyaçoyu düÅŸün.

Apám erÅ'tlenül bólintott, én feléje nyújtottam a csomag cigarettát, vett belÅ'le, tüzet adtam. Sajnáltam már. Rossz lehet az egy apának, ha akkor beszélget elÅ'ször igazán a fiával, amikor az már majdnem huszonnyolc éves.

A régebbi zeneszerzÅ'k közül nekem Chopin és Schubert a legkedvesebb. Tudom, hogy a zenetanárunknak igaza volt, amikor Mozartot mennyeinek, Beethovent nagyszer?nek, Gluckot páratlannak, Bachot pedig hatalmasnak nevezte; tudom. Bach nekem mindig olyan, mint egy harminckötetes dogmatika, amely bámulatba ejt. De Schubert és Chopin két olyan földi lény, amilyen alighanem magam is vagyok.

Everything bad comes from those resounding voices; those resounding voices started the war, and those resounding voices regulate the worst war of all, the war at railway stations. To hell with all resounding voices!

Und ich sehe Freds Gesicht, unerbittlich alt werdend, leergefressen von einem Leben, das nutzlos wäre und gewesen wäre ohne die Liebe, die er mir einflößt. Das Gesicht eines Mannes, der zu früh von Gleichgültigkeit erfaßt wurde gegen alles, was ernst zu nehmen andere Männer sich entschlossen haben. Und sagte kein einziges Wort S.39

Es ist doch merkwürdig, daß ich ihr nicht böse sein kann. Ich bin vor Schmerz fast tot, todkrank, und sie tanzt, obwohl sie teilgenommen hat an meinem Schmerz, und ich kann nicht böse sein, nein....

Žmogus be li?desio nebe žmogus.

What a laborious, frightful business it was, this killing time, over and over again that little seconds-hand racing invisibly beyond the horizon, over and over again you threw a heavy dark sack over it, in the certain knowledge that the little hand went racing on, relentlessly on and on…

Es gibt ein Mittel gegen die Einsamkeit, die einen plötzlich in einer fremden Stadt überfällt: etwas kaufen: eine Ansichtskarte, einen Kaugummi nur, einen Bleistift oder Zigaretten: etwas in die Hand bekommen, teilnehmen am Leben dieser Stadt, indem man etwas kauft [...]

Was mich so unruhig macht, ist die Unfähigkeit, mich zu beschränken oder, wie mein Agent Zohnerer sagen würde, zu konzentrieren.

But the silence of those who said nothing, nothing at all, was terrible. It was the silence of those who knew they were all done for.

Ich kniete nieder, bekreuzte mich, und ich hatte einen Augenblick das Gefühl, ein Heuchler zu sein, bis mir einfiel, daß Gott unschuldig war und daß es keine Heuchelei war, vor ihm niederzuknien. S.47