Quotes from J.M. Coetzee

An intellectual apparatus marked by a conscious knowledge of its insufficiency is an evolutionary aberration.

Primero el cráneo, luego el temperamento: las dos partes más duras del cuerpo.

La aritmética es para alguien que se propone salir al mundo, comprar y vender. No. Vamos a estudiar los números enteros, el uno, el dos, el tres, etcétera. Eso acordamos con David. La teoría de los números; lo que uno puede hacer con los números y qué sucede cuando los números se acaban.

No, of course John did not love his father, he did not love anybody, he was not built for love. But he did feel guilty about his father. He felt guilty and therefore behaved dutifully. With certain lapses.

Una aventura? ¿Iba en serio? - ¿Qué más dará que fuera en serio? Pasada cierta edad, todas las aventuras van en serio. Igual que los ataques cardíacos.

In private I observed that once in every generation, without fail, there is an episode of hysteria about the barbarians... These dreams are the consequence of too much ease. Show me the barbarian army and I will believe.

La razón no es ni la esencia del universo ni mucho menos la esencia de Dios. Muy al contrario, a mí la razón se me antoja sospechosamente la esencia del pensamiento humano; peor aún, es como la esencia de una sola tendencia del pensamiento humano.

Matar a la persona que amas: es algo que el viejo Simón no entenderá nunca. Pero tú lo entiendes, ¿verdad? Tú entiendes a Dmitri. Lo entendiste desde el primer momento.

Follow your own nature.

At what age , he wonders, did Origen castrate himself? Not the most graceful solution, but then ageing is not a graceful bussines.

De la buena voluntad surge la amistad y la felicidad, las meriendas agradables en el parque o los paseos vespertinos y agradables por el bosque.

del amor, o al menos del anhelo de sus más urgentes manifestaciones, surgen la frustración, las dudas y la amargura.

In a minute, in an hour, it will be too late; whatever is happening to her will be set in stone, will belong to the past. But now is not too late. Now he must do something

perché siamo qui? - Non so cosa dire. Siamo qui per lo stesso motivo per cui ci sono tutti gli altri. Abbiamo avuto la possibilità di vivere e l'abbiamo accettata. È una gran cosa vivere. La più grande di tutte.

Unstrung: that is the word that comes back to him from Homer. The spear shatters the breastbone, blood spurts, the limbs are unstrung, the body topples like a wooden puppet. Well, his limbs have been unstrung and now his spirit is unstrung too. His spirit is ready to topple.

I tell myself I talk to Friday to educate him out of darkness and silence. But is that the truth? There are times when benevolence deserts me and I use words only as the shortest way to subject him to my will. At such times I understand why Cruso preferred not to disturb his muteness. I understand, that is to say, why a man will choose to be a slaveowner. Do you think less of me for this confession?

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?

When all else fails, philosophize.

The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.

I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

Truth is not spoken in anger. Truth is spoken, if it ever comes to be spoken, in love. The gaze of love is not deluded. It sees what is best in the beloved even when what is best in the beloved finds it hard to emerge into the light.

A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.

We must cultivate, all of us, a certain ignorance, a certain blindness, or society will not be tolerable.

His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origin of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.