Quotes from Max Frisch

Jeder Mensch erfindet sich früher oder später eine Geschichte, die er für sein Leben hält, [...] oder eine ganze Reihe von Geschichten [...].

Wenn ich so allein bin, siehst du, und mich an alles erinnere, das ist das Schlimme, daß man allein nicht darüber lachen kann, oder dann ist es nur so ein böses und bitteres Lachen, so daß man später über genau die gleichen Dinge doch wieder heult (S. 173).

the most essential statement in Swiss writing seems to be a certain regret that the nineteenth century is moving further and further away.

Ich bin auf Erfahrungen angewiesen, die ich nicht begrifflich fassen kann, die mich hilflos machen und von daher narrativ.

the direction taken by our vanity is not, as it appears to be, the direction towards our self, but away from our self.

Why should I be melancholy? England wasn't in sight yet.

Boys!" she said. "You can't imagine what they're like—they think you're their mother, and that's frightful!

In Florence I rebelled and told her that frankly I thought her Fra Angelico rather mawkish. Then I corrected myself and said "naive." She didn't deny it, on the contrary, she was delighted; it couldn't be naïve enough for her. What I enjoyed was campari!

We talked about constellations—the usual thing, when two people haven't yet discovered which one knows less about the stars than the other; the rest is romantic fantasy, which I can't bear.

Es ist aber, wenn einmal das Unwahrscheinliche eintritt, nichts Höheres dabei, keinerlei Wunder oder Derartiges, wie es der Laie so gerne haben möchte. Indem wir vom Wahrscheinlichen sprechen, ist ja das Unwahrscheinliche immer schon inbegriffen und zwar als Grenzfall des Möglichen, und wenn es einmal eintritt, das Unwahrscheinliche, so besteht gür unserein keinerlei Grund zur Verwunderung, zur Erschütterung, zur Mystifikation.

Caresses in the evening, yes, but I can't stand caresses in the morning, and frankly more than three or four days with one woman has always been for me the beginning of dissimulation, no man can stand feelings in the morning. I'd rather wash dishes! Sabeth laughed.

Hvor var dere i Roma?» spør hun. Jeg avga rapport.

I really began to feel that the young were beyond me. I often appeared to myself a deceiver. Why? I didn't want to undermine her belief that Tivoli surpassed anything I had ever seen anywhere and that an afternoon in Tivoli, for example, was happiness squared; but I just couldn't feel that way about it.

a woman with time on her hands in the morning, a woman who wanders about before she is dressed, for example, rearranging flowers in a vase and talking about love and marriage, is something no man can stand, I believe, unless he dissembles.

on the one hand she had boundless trust in me, merely because I was thirty years older, a childish trust, and on the other hand no respect at all. I was vexed to find I expected respect.

The very sight of a double room, unless it's in a hotel I can leave again soon, a double room as a permanent arrangement, sets me thinking about the Foreign Legion

In general, only the future counted for her, and to a slight extent the present; but she had no interest at all in past experiences, like all young people.

I can't have feelings all the time. Being alone is the only possible condition for me, since I don't want to make a woman unhappy, and women have a tendency to become unhappy. Being alone isn't always fun, you can't always be in form.

Jeg lengtet etter elektrisk strøm…

I took pleasure in every moment that was in any real sense pleasurable. I didn't turn somersaults, I didn't sing, but there were certain things that I, too, enjoyed.

A man with convictions finds an answer for everything. Convictions are the best form of protection against the living truth.

The demand that we love our neighbor as ourselves contains as an axiom the demand that we shall love ourselves, shall accept ourselves as we were created.

It is only the consciousness of a nonexistence which allows us to realize for moments that we are living.

The point is to show who is the cross and who the crucified.