Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

People are built like houses inside- they have stairwells, spacious halls, vestibules that are always too weakly lit to count the doors into the rooms, row upon row of apartments, damp chambers, slimy, tiled bathrooms with cast-iron baths, steps with handrails taut as veins, artery-like corridors, joint-like landings, passages, guest rooms, draughty chambers into which a sudden current of warm air flows, closets, twists and turns and cubby-holes, and larders full of forgotten supplies.

Desire in itself is empty, in other words it merely indicates direction, but never destination; destinations, in any case, always remain phantasmagoric and unclear; the closer we get to them, the more enigmatic they become.

It is written that there are three things that do not come if you are thinking of them: the Messiah, lost objects, and scorpions.

But why should we have to be useful and for what reason? Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right? Does a thistle have no right to life, or a Mouse that eats the green in a warehouse? What about Bees and Drones, weeds and roses? Whose intellect can have had the audacity to judge who is better, and who worse?

Ka?dy z nas siedzi okrakiem na granicy mi?dzy w?asnym ?wiatem wewn?trznym a ?wiatem zewn?trznym i niebezpiecznie balansuje. To bardzo niewygodna pozycja i niewielu udaje si? utrzyma? równowag?.

most people are truly idiots, and that it is human stupidity that is ultimately responsible for introducing sadness into the world.

Real wisdom lies in linking everything together—that's when the true shape of all of it emerges.

we discussed the function of defense mechanisms and found that we were humbled by the power of that portion of our psyche, we began to understand that if it weren't for rationalization, sublimation, denial—all the little tricks we let ourselves perform—if instead we simply saw the world as it was, with nothing to protect us, honestly and courageously, it would break our hearts.

creating big, bold letters; he draws visible pleasure from the flourishes with which he embellishes especially the letters J and S. They want a big public Disputation,

Sometimes, when a Person feels Anger, everything seems simple and obvious. Anger puts things in order and shows you the world in a nutshell; Anger restores the gift of Clarity of Vision, which it's hard to attain in any other state.

The prison is not outside, but inside each of us. Perhaps we simply don't know how to live without it.

God-the-man has more important matters in his head: wars, catastrophes, conquests, and distant journeys … Women take care of the food.

The old method for dealing with bad dreams is to tell them aloud above the toilet bowl, and then flush them away.

The prison is not outside, but inside each of us.

God created man with eyes in the front, not the back of the head, and that means we've got to think about what's to come, not what has been.

Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right?

To tell the truth, I like the concept of evil people who eliminated each other, in a chain.

checks the sick soggy plaster with his finger, the wet paint leaving a mark on his skin. The stains on the walls make maps of countries he can't recognize, he can't name.

Change is the 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. (P4)

We should have some other collection of knowledge, then, to balance that one out – its inverse, its inner lining, everything we don't know, all the things that can't be captured in any index, can't be handled by any search engine. For the vastness of these contents cannot be traversed from word to word – you have to step in between the words, into the unfathomable abysses between ideas.

The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

Mówi? do kogo?, kto nie rozumie, to próbowa? otworzy? zamek ?d?b?em trawy, to kroi? chleb ga??zk? bazylii, wkr?ca? ?arówk? w ptasie gniazdo, wk?ada? dyskietk? mi?dzy dwa kamienie.

From nature's point of view no creatures are useful or not useful. That's just a foolish distinction applied by people.

me, a homegrown detective, a private investigator of signs and coincidences. He evidently noticed my unease,