Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

The island state is a state of remaining within one's own boundaries, undisturbed by any external influence; it resembles a kind of narcissism or even autism.

At that point I felt a surge of Anger, genuine, not to say Divine Anger. It flooded me from inside in a burning hot wave. This energy made me feel great, as if it were lifting me off the ground, a mini Big Bang within the universe of my body. There was fire burning within me, like a neutron star.

It's strange how the Night erases all colors, as if it didn't give a damn about such worldly extravagance.

Only a piece of machinery could possibly carry all the world's pain. Only a machine, simple, effective and just. But if everything were to happen mechanically, our prayers wouldn't be needed.

She squeezes my shoulder and leaves, disappearing between shelves labeled "Drama" and "Action.

She is happy, because she doesn't have a single thought in her head, a single care, a single expectation or hope. It's a good feeling.

Moliwda knows that despite appearances, it is a happy marriage. Meaning: They each do their own thing.

My body tensed, I was ready to do battle. My head began to spin, and a dismal wailing rose in my ears, a roar, as if from over the horizon an army of thousands was approaching – voices, the clank of iron, the creak of wheels in the distance. Anger makes the mind clear and incisive, able to see more. It sweeps up the other emotions and takes control of the body. Without a doubt Anger is the source of all wisdom, for Anger has the power to exceed any limits.

Simply by the eternal laws of coincidence the key to room number nine gets lost most often by distracted travelers.

Every Night & every Morn Some to Misery are Born Every Morn & every Night Some are Born to sweet delight, Some are born to Endless Night.

If something hurts me, I erase it from my mental map. Places where I stumbled, fell, where I was struck down, cut to the quick, where things were painful—such places are simply not there any longer. This means I've gotten rid of several big cities and one whole province. Maybe someday I'll eliminate a country.

In essence, one becomes what one participates in. In other words, I am what I look at.

Do not leave any unexplained, unnarrated situations, any closed doors; kick them down with a curse, even the ones that lead to embarrassing and shameful hallways you would prefer to forget. Don't be ashamed of any fall, of any sin... He who has not mastered the art of speaking shall remain forever caught in a trap.

a complex hierarchy of cells for concubines opens up: the least desirable women are transferred upward, as though their bodies, forgotten by men, were undergoing a mysterious process of angelification;

the point here was appropriation via antithesis.

a thing in motion will always be better than a thing at rest; that change will always be a nobler thing than permanence; that that which is static will degenerate and decay, turn to ash, while that which is in motion is able to last for all eternity.

Whenever I set off on any sort of journey I fall off the radar. No one knows where I am.

There is only one thing we cannot have—eternal life, and, by God, whence did that concept come into our heads, that idea of being immortal?

think alcohol is worse than other wares? People need to drink, life is hard!

It's a feature of flashlights that they're only visible in the daytime.

Am I like that lost day when you fly east, and that regained night that comes from going west?

It's a tendency to be sybaritic, to live in a state of mild semiconsciousness, to fritter your life away on petty pleasures, to dislike effort and be devoid of any penchant for competition.

Or to a different law that hasn't been demonstrated and that we haven't even thought of yet that says that you can doubly not exist in the same place?

Apoptosis is natural death, brought about by the tiredness and exhaustion of matter. In Greek this word means 'the dropping of petals'. The world has dropped its petals.