Herta Müller Quotes

German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist (born 1953)

Add quote

Herta Müller (born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf, Timiș County in Romania, her native language is German. Since the early 1990s she has been internationally established, and her works have been translated into more than 20 languages.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: Herta Muller • H. Müller • H. Muller • H. Mueller • Herta Mueller

From Wikidata (CC0)

No novels, since you just read them once and never again.

If you don't have the right things, you improvise. the wrong things become necessary. Then the necessary things turn out to be the only right things, simply because they're what you have.

A lot of people think packing a suitcase is something you learn through practice, like singing or praying.

The world is not a costume ball,

I was my own thief, the words came out of nowhere and caught me.

I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.

I simply wanted to go to a place that didn't know who I was.

The war was still on in January 1945. In their dismay at my being shipped off in the dead of winter to who knows where in Russia, everyone wanted to give me something that might be of use, even if it couldn't be help. Because nothing in the world could possible help.

Welt, Welt, Schwester Welt

The real secret is why love starts out with claws like a cat and then fades with time like a half-eaten mouse.

You go out for a walk and the world opens up for you. And before you’ve even stretched your legs properly, it closes shut. For here to there it’s all just the farty sputter of lantern. And they call that having lived. It’s not worth the bother of putting on your shoes.