Quotes from J.M. Coetzee

as historias se cuentan a si mismas, no las cuenta uno

I have lived through an eventful year, yet understand no more of it than a babe in arms. Of all the people of this town I am the one least fitted to write a memorial. Better the blacksmith with his cries of rage and woe.

A risk to own anything : a car, a pair of shoes, a packet of cigarettes. Not enough to go around. Not enough shoes, cars, cigarettes. Too many people too few things. What there is must go into circulation, so that everyone can have a chance to be happy for a day.

Y qué es la verdad sino la manera en que son las cosas?

I remember asking John, after Dusklands, what new project he had on the go. His answer was vague. 'There is always something or the other I am working on', he said. 'If I yield to the seduction of not working, what would I do with myself? What would there be to live for? I would have to shoot myself.

Resulta extraño añorar lo jamás tenido, aquello de lo que nunca ha formado parte. Resulta extraño tener una sensación elegíaca acerca de un pasado que en realidad nunca ha conocido

Todo amor, al final es moderado

But then, what are books for if not to change our lives?

No one beats me, no one starves me, no one spits on me. How can I regard myself as a victim of prosecution when my sufferings are so petty? Yet they are all the more degrading for their pettiness.

It was no longer a matter of growing a fat crop, only of growing enough for the seed not to die out. There will be another year, he consoled himself, another summer in which to try again.

Un bambino ha bisogno del grembo materno per venire al mondo. Una volta che ha lasciato il grembo, la madre come datrice di vita è una forza esaurita, come il padre. Da quel momento in poi il bambino ha bisogno di amore e di cure che possono venire da un uomo come da una donna.

Eating is a ritual, and rituals make things easier.

Do you remember Vlek, who was such a good sheepdog that she and Jakob alone could drive a whole flock past you at the counting-post? Do you remember how Vlek grew old and sickly and could not hold down her food, and how there was no one to shoot her but you, and how you went for a walk afterwards because you did not want anyone to see you cry?

Besonders rätselhaft ist die Frage, in welchem historischen Zeitalter wir leben: in einem puritanischen oder einem freizügigen. ....Einerseits haben Eltern nichts dagegen einzuwenden, wenn ihre sechzehnjährige Tochter einen Jungen zum Übernachten mit nach Hause bringt. Vielleicht bieten sie sogar den beiden am nächsten Morgen Frühstück an. Andererseits wird ein Erwachsener, der am Strand ein Foto von einem Kind im Badeanzug macht, ins Gefängnis gesteckt.

Suicide, I had understood, is an act not of body against itself but of the will against the body

In every story there is a silence, some sight concealed, some word unspoken, I believe. Till we have spoken the unspoken we have not come to the heart of the story.

Does it surprise you as much as it does me, this correspondence between things as they are and the pictures we have of them in our minds?

The planting is reserved for those who come after us and have the foresight to bring seed. I only clear the ground for them. Clearing ground an piling stones is little enough, but it is better than sitting in idleness.

El dolor es la verdad, todo lo demás está sujeto a duda.

Den Staat kümmert nicht, ob der Bürger lebt oder stirbt. Wichtig für den Staat und sein Archiv ist, ob der Bürger am Leben oder tot ist.

Obwohl diese afrikanischen Militärbanden oft nicht größer oder mächtiger sind als die organisierten kriminellen Banden in Asien oder Osteuropa, wird über ihre Aktivitäten in den Medien - sogar in den westlichen Medien - unter der Rubrik Politik (Geschehen aus aller Welt) respektvoll berichtet, statt unter der Rubrik Verbrechen.

Alle äußeren Feinde und Widerstände ermangelnd, eingesperrt in unterdrückende Enge und Ordnung, hat der Mensch schließlich keine andere Wahl, als sich selbst zu einem Abenteuer zu machen.

Las matemáticas que hemos inventado o descubierto, de las que creemos o esperamos que sean una llave para acceder a la estructura del universo, muy bien podrían ser igualmente un lenguaje privado con el que garabateamos en los muros de nuestra caverna

La historia carece de vida a menos que le proporciones un hogar en tu conciencia