Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

Perhaps one could get used to it? Learn to live with it, just as people live in the cities of Auschwitz or Hiroshima, without ever thinking about what happened there in the past. They simply live their lives.

W jakim? sensie takie osoby jak ona, te, które w?adaj? piórem, bywaj? niebezpieczne. Narzuca si? od razu podejrzenie fa?szu - ?e taka osoba nie jest sob?, tylko okiem, które bezustannie patrzy, a to, co widzi, zamienia w zdania; w ten sposób okrawa rzeczywisto?? ze wszystkiego, co w niej najwa?niejsze, z niewyra?alno?ci.

Uve?er promatram Veneru, podrobno pratim promjene te lijepe Gospo?ice. Više je volim kao ve?ernju zvijezdu, kada se pojavljuje niotkud, kao za?arana, i spušta za Suncem, Iskra vje?ne svjetlosti. Upravo u Sumrak zbivaju se najzanimljivije stvari, jer tada se zagla?uju jednostavne razlike. Mogla bih živjeti u vje?nom Sumraku." str. 48.

It occurred to me that every unjustly inflictd death deserved public exposure. Even an Insect's. A death that nobody noticed was twice as scandalous.

Zimska jutra su napravljena od ?elika, imaju metana okus i oštre rubove. U srijedu, u sedam ujutro, u sije?nju, vidi se da svijet nije stvoren za ?ovjeka , a posve sigurno ne za njegovu ugodu i zadovoljstvo." str. 117.

Anyone who has ever tried to write a novel knows what an arduous task it is, undoubtedly one of the worst ways of occupying oneself. You have to remain within yourself all the time, in solitary confinement. It's a controlled psychosis, an obsessive paranoia manacled to work, completely lacking in the feather pens and bustles and Venetian masks we would ordinarily associate with it, clothed instead in a butcher's apron and rubber boots, eviscerating knife in hand.

Držim, naime, da je ljudska psiha stvorena da nas obrani od sagledavanja istine. Da nam ne dopusti izravno sagledati mehanizam. Psiha je naš obrambeni sustav - skrbi za to da nikada ne pojmimo ono što nas okružuje. Bavi se uglavnom filtriranjem obavijesti i pored toga što su mogu?nosti našeg mozga goleme. Jer to se znanje ne bi moglo podnijeti. Svaki se pa i najmanji djeli? svijeta sastoji od patnje." str. 219.

I realized that sorrow is an important word for defining the world. It lies at the foundation of everything, it is the fifth element, the quintessence.

The last time I had brought him maps, for I had heard that nothing cures melancholy like looking at maps.

every single Person has their own expression which he or she overuses. Or uses incorrectly. These words or phrases are the key to their intellect. Mr. "Apparently," Mr. "Generally," Mrs. "Probably," Mr. "Fucking," Mrs. "Don't You Think?," Mr. "As If.

There are some things we may not understand, but we can sense them perfectly well.

Reality has grown old and gone senile; after all, it is definitely subject to the same laws as every living organism—it ages.

?wiat móg? powsta? tylko dlatego, ?e Bóg go opu?ci?. Najpierw by?o co?, a potem tego zabrak?o. To jest ?wiat. ?wiat ca?y jest brakiem.

Come back to me. The world is terrible and it can kill you. Look at the earthquakes, the volcanic eruptions, the fires and the floods," He thundered from the rain clouds. "Oh, come on, I'll manage," man replied, and was gone.

Newspapers rely on keeping us in a constant state of anxiety, on diverting our emotions away from the things that really matter to us.

With age, many men come down with testosterone autism, the symptoms of which are a gradual decline in social intelligence and capacity for interpersonal communication, as well as a reduced ability to formulate thoughts.

Those of us who think God addresses us by means of external events are wrong, as naive as children. For he whispers directly into our innermost souls.

He saw it. Not in front, or behind him, just somewhere out in the darkness. It was huge and powerful. The whiteness of its fur gleamed in the light of the snow. 'Wolf, in the name of the Polish border I beg you to spare my life,' he said into the darkness. The wolf stopped behind him, wondering.

Anger can prompt one to utter various words, but it can also make one fail to remember them afterward.

Are you asleep?' he asked. 'Are you religious?' I had to put the question. 'Yes,' he replied proudly. 'I'm an atheist.

After all, the Jewish historian Josephus maintains the world was created in the autumn, at the autumn equinox. A reasonable notion, since of course there were fruits in paradise; given the apple hanging from the tree, it must indeed have been autumn…

Gradually I felt flooded by a powerful sense of communion with the people passing by. Each man was my brother and each woman my sister. We were so very much alike. So fragile, impermanent, and easily destroyed. We trustingly went to and fro beneath the sky, which had nothing good in store for us.

The inn looks quite luxurious, but their host explains that as the plague has racked up victims, people have grown more and more afraid to leave their homes, terrified to purchase things from those who have been stricken.

Everyone who seeks salvation must do three things: change his place of residence, change his name, and change his deeds.