Quotes from Danilo Kiš

Ne volim ljude koji se izvla?e iz svega kao kišne gliste. Bez ožiljka i bez ogrebotine. Komedijaši.

U zoru, osvanusmo ispod stola, iznad bola.

The past was a minefield about which few maps seemed to agree. And why should that surprise me? It's a big place. p. 30

O ?emu još govore njeni paragrafi, prazne rubrike koje je ispisivala nevidljivim mastilom mašta de?aka?

Kozorogi, što me nisi poštedeo toga! Što si mi pomogao da srušim spomenik od zlata, od mesa, od mese?ine. Euridiko sliko, Euridiko senko, Euridiko — kurvo kamenjarko!

Terribly thwarted in the autumn and winter, deadened in summer, in the spring his egoism would awaken his once inadequately defined revolt against world order and people, and this rebelliousness, this surplus energy, this restlessness of mind and blood would bring him back to life.

Dragana oslobodi me veza svoje slrasti! Ni kapi više toga vina od poljubaca. Ova magla od teškog tamjana guši mi srce. Otvori vrata i propusti jutarnji zrak. Izgubljen sam u tebi, zarobljen u zagrljaju tvoje nežnosti. Oslobodi me svoje draži, i povrati mi hrabrosti da ti ponudim svoje slobodno srce.

Contrary to general belief, evil is neither tragic nor romantic; most of the time, it is banal.

Ako ne možeš da deluješ u pogibeljnoj sprezi tih protivure?nih sila, moralnih i pesni?kih, povuci se. Zalivaj kupus u svome vrtu, a ruže gaji samo na groblju. Jer ruže su pogubne po dušu.

Se?am se - ako imam pravo da se se?am - uzbu?enja kada smo prvi put izmešali naše stvari u jednom hotelu u Bakuu: ode?a nam je stajala u ormanima na vešalicama, u nekoj lascivnoj intimnosti.

During that year by the railroad embankment, at the time of my father's complete disaster, distance meant for us not only some faraway lyrical splendor but also the exceedingly utilitarian idea of running away, the deliverance from fear and hunger.

The local Red Cross chapter volunteered to publish his book. It came out in a deluxe, gold-embossed, Japanese-paper edition to remind the reader of human artistry, which can be a refuge from evil and a source of new, platonic stirrings. One copy was reserved for His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II. (The Tsar fairly devoured mystical works, believing that hell could be avoided by a combination of education and deceit.) "The Book of Kings and Fools," p. 136.

nothing in the history of mankind is ever repeated, things that at first glance seem the same are scarcely even similar; each individual is a star unto himself, everything happens always and never, all things repeat themselves ad infinitum yet are unique.

I don't want to make a tea set. I want to make crystal, as the wonderful Billy Wiseass would put it. That poor bastard has it good: he's never experienced love. It'll be easy for him to write a romance novel.

A sve što nadživi smrt jeste jedna mala ništavna pobeda nad ve?noš?u ništavila - dokaz ljudske veli?ine i Jahvine milosti. Non omnis moriar.

pois uma grande quantidade de livros nunca é perigosa, enquanto um só livro sim, é perigoso; disse-lhes que não os rasgassem porque a leitura de uma grande quantidade de livros conduz à sabedoria, e a leitura de um único à ignorância armada de loucura e ódio.

For he – and this is truly what Central European writers do – drags around a terrible burden of linguistic and musical melodies; he hauls a piano and a dead horse behind him, along with everything that has been played on that piano and everything that the horse once bore into battle and to defeat – marble statues and bronze bearded busts, pictures in baroque frames, words and melodies that nobody can understand outside that language.

But my father had already removed his hand from his pocket, and everyone could see the scrap of newspaper into which he proceeded to blow his nose. Any kind of excitement provoked powerful disturbances in his metabolism and ample secretions of fluids. If he got out of that scramble alive, the first thing he would do would be to go behind a bush and urinate, breaking wind vigorously, I was sure of that.

Veliko vam hvala, gospo?o, idem da potražim ku?u u kojoj sam živeo. Ne, hvala vam, više bih voleo da budem sam.

The temporary suffering of existence is worth more than the final void of nothingness.

The man who found in his heart this heretical and dangerous thought, which speaks of the futility of one's own being-in-time, finds himself, however, faced with another (final) dilemma: whether to accept the transitoriness of this being-in-time for the sake of that precious and expensively acquired knowledge (which excludes any morality and therefore is made in absolute freedom), or, for the sake of that same knowledge, to yield oneself to the embrace of nothingness.

Jer - a to je mislim osnovna poruka sastavlja?a "Enciklopedije" - nikad se ništa ne ponavlja u istoriji ljudskih bi?a, sve što se na prvi pogled ?ini da je isto jedva da je sli?no; svaki je ?ovek zvezda za sebe, sve se doga?a uvek i nikad, sve se ponavlja beskrajno i neponovljivo. (Stoga sastavlja?i "Enciklopedije mrtvih", tog veli?anstvenog spomenika razli?itosti, insistiraju na pojedina?nom, zato im je svako ljudsko stvorenje svetinja.)

You can't play the role of a victim all your life without becoming one in the end.