Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

There is a certain well-known syndrome named after Stendhal in which one arrives in a place known from literature or art and experiences it so intensely that one grows weak or faints.

Each man was my brother and each woman my sister. We were so very much alike. So fragile, impermanent, and easily destroyed.

her hands are hennaed in a complex design made less legible by each passing day.

Resztki zostawionej tu osobowo?ci poprzedniego go?cia trzeba zwalczy? swoj? bezosobowo?ci?. Po to jest Przemiana. Resztki odbi? tamtej twarzy w lustrze nie tylko musz? zetrze? szmatk?, ale tak?e zape?ni? lustro moj? bia?o-ró?ow? beztwarzowo?ci?. Tamten zapach zostawiony przez roztargnienie i po?piech musz? zag?uszy? moim bezzapachem.

eye that's constantly watching, and whatever it sees it changes into sentences; in the process it strips reality of its most essential quality—its inexpressibility.

Z jakich? wzgl?dów ludzie nie potrafi? wyobra?a? sobie ko?ców, nie tylko ko?ców rzeczy wielkich, ale nawet najmniejszych. Mo?e samo wyobra?anie sobie czegokolwiek wyczerpuje jako? rzeczywisto??; mo?e ona nie chce by? wyobra?ana w g?owach ludzi, mo?e chce by? wolna, jak zbuntowany nastolatek, i to w?a?nie dlatego zawsze jest inaczej, ni? mo?na to by?o sobie wyobrazi?.

It lies at the foundations of everything, it is the fifth element, the quintessence.

On the walls hung black-and-white portraits of men—it was only in the physics department that you could find the single female face in the whole school, Madame Maria Sk?odowska Curie's, the sole indication of the equality of the sexes. These

He looks like a guy who discovered not so long ago that he's not really so different from everybody else - thus attaining, in other words, his own enlightenment. (page 408)

The psyche is our defense system—it makes sure we'll never understand what's going on around us. Its main task is to filter information, even though the capabilities of our brains are enormous. For it would be impossible to carry the weight of this knowledge. Because every tiny particle of the world is made of suffering.

And there remain blades of grass that are succulent and green, as if they have forgotten it's the end of October, and that it freezes at night.

In their heads they perform mute examinations of conscience: Do they have everything, passport, ticket, and papers, have they exchanged money. And where is it they're going. And what for.

Dziwne - jej my?li owiewaj? ca?? okolic?. Wiatr - mówi jaki? g?os w jej g?owie, zapewne w?asny. Wiatr to jest wzrok umar?ych, kiedy patrz? na ?wiat stamt?d, gdzie s?.

There are more than enough traits and Characteristics in this world for each of us to be richly endowed, I thought to myself.

And if he did hesitate for a moment, he would usually come to the conclusion that the truest argument was an old one: the Earth is round. Let us not be too attached, then, to directions. And this was understandable. To someone from nowhere, every movement turns into a return, since nothing exerts such a draw as emptiness.

It's a complete mystery that every challenge triggers vital forces within us. I really did feel better—only my left leg was still racked with pain, like an electric current, so I was walking on it stiffly, as if it were a prosthesis. But once I had to move the ladder, I stopped worrying about my Ailments. I forgot about the pain.

To be foreign is to be free. To have a great expanse stretch out before you—the desert, the steppe. To have the shape of the moon behind you like a cradle, the deafening symphony of the cicadas, the air's fragrance of melon peel, the rustle of the scarab beetle when, come evening, the sky turns red, and it ventures out onto the sand to hunt. To have your own history, not for everyone, just your own history written in the tracks you leave behind.

Dievas rašo kaire ranka veidrodiniu b?du.

As it says in Blake: "Opposition is true friendship.

Rzeczywisto?? si? zestarza?a, stetrycza?a, bo przecie? podlega ona zdecydowanie takim samym prawom jak ka?dy ?ywy organizm - starzeje si?. Jej najdrobniejsze sk?adniki - sensy, ulegaj? apoptozie jak komórki cia?a. Apoptoza to ?mier? naturalna, spowodowana zm?czeniem i wyczerpaniem materii.

Podnios?am ko?dr? i zaprosi?am go do siebie, ale poniewa? nie jestem Czu?ostkowa ani Sentymentalna, nie b?d? si? dalej nad tym rozwodzi?.

Some Dogs can be silly, just like people, and this Dog was certainly one of them.

Everything in here was clean and bright, warm and cosy. What a joy it is in life when you happen to have a clean, warm kitchen.

Un citoyen ignoré par l'administration est, d'une certaine façon, voué à la non-existence. Il ne faut toutefois pas ignorer qu'une personne privée de ses droits n'a nul devoir à accomplir.