Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

Los sonidos se han enroscado y han echado para atrás sus ojos de caracol

estamos hechos de materia y al mismo tiempo somos ajenos a ella, que estamos separados de ella.

She often reflected on how her life had turned out, and she was coming to the conclusion that the truth was simple: men needed women more than women needed men.

In fact, thought Karen, women could get along perfectly fine without men altogether.

Nie mo?emy traktowa? czynu kobiety jako w pe?ni ?wiadomego - odezwa? si? znowu Frommer. - Psychologia kobieca udowodni?a, ?e kobieta jest jednocze?nie i podmiotem, i przedmiotem, wi?c jej wybory mog? by? tylko w pewnej cz??ci ?wiadome... (...) Kobiety ze swej natury s? delikatniejsze i bardziej wra?liwe, dlatego tak ?atwo sk?aniaj? si? do czynów nieprzemy?lanych.

The first thing every neophyte fight must understand is that God, whatever he is, has nothing in common with humankind, and that he remains so far away as to be completely inaccessible to the human senses. The same is true of his intentions. At no point will people ever learn what he is up to.

You Know what, sometimes it seems to me we've living in a world that fabricate for ourselves. We decide what's good and what isn't, we draw maps of meanings for ourselves...And then we spend our whole lives struggling with what we have invented for ourselves. The problems is that each of us has our own version of it, so people find it hard to understand each other

They hadn't found anything, for what could they have found? But order had been disturbed, peace destroyed.

Poverty is nondenominational and has no national identity.

Czyli nie da si? zawróci? kobiety z samoniszcz?cej drogi choroby umys?owej? (...) - U m??czyzny silna wola pomo?e zwalczy? niektóre pokusy szale?stwa, lecz kobiety s? jej prawie zupe?nie pozbawione i nie maj? ?adnego or??a do walki.

In her family they used to say that you always had to sit for a minute before heading off on any kind of trip—an old provincial Polish habit—

impotence. At the same time the ironists always have a world outlook that they proclaim triumphantly, though if one starts badgering and questioning them about the details, it turns out to consist of nothing but trivia and banalities.

Zapewne dziwi? si? tej pot??nej plamie organicznej materii, która nagle dokona?a inwazji z nieba na ich owadzi ?wiat.

One discovers, and names. Conquers and civilizes.

miasteczko Cz?stochów. Roch wyja?nia mu, troch? s?owami, troch? na migi, ?e ta nazwa bierze si? st?d, i? ?wi?ty przybytek w nim si? znajduj?cy cz?sto chowa si? oczom grzeszników, i trzeba dobrze wyt??y? wzrok, ?eby go dojrze? w?ród ?agodnych wzgórz.

The first thing every neophyte must understand is that God, whatever he is, has nothing in common with humankind, and that he remains so far away as to be completely inaccessible to the human senses. The same is true of his intentions. At no point will people ever learn what he is up to.

Do not leave any unexplained, unnarrated situations, any closed doors; kick them down with a course.

Here the sky hangs over us dark and low, like a dirty screen, on which the clouds are fighting fierce battles.

Przyszed? do male?kiego ko?cio?a spó?niony, poniewa? czeka? na koniec kolejki do zimnych pryszniców. Uda?o mu si? przekona? barczystego k?pielowego, ?e musi zosta? w bieli?nie. Potem d?ugo rozgrzewa? si? gor?c? herbat?. Co za okrucie?stwo - polewa? ludzi letni? zaledwie wod?. By? przez to w z?ym humorze.

female friends over the age of forty who have left their boring husbands in search of some excitement.

Ojciec cz?sto powtarza? mu (...) ?e kobiety s? z natury swojej zdradliwe i chwiejne. Rozmazane.

But the truth is that anyone who feels Anger, and does not take action, merely spreads the infection.

Philosophical concepts—those were what kept him up at night; they belonged to him.

They agree only on the point that the most important aspect is reason. For one entire evening they play around with the metaphor of the light of reason that illuminates everything equally and dispassionately. Gertruda remarks immediately and intelligently that wherever something's brightly lit, there is also a shadow, a darkening. The more powerful the light, the deeper, the more intense the shadow. That's true, that's a little bit disturbing; they stop talking for a while.