J. M. Coetzee

Poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response.

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

Prose, in his experience, calls for many more words than poetry. There is no point in embarking on prose if one lacks confidence that one will be alive the next day to carry on with the task.

I discovered out in the country ... that there is time enough for everything

There is no home left for universal souls, except perhaps in Antarctica or on the high seas

You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character, I am a minor character who doesn’t make an appearance until halfway through.

There is nothing to link me with torturers, people who sit waiting like beetles in dark cellars.

I do not love him, but he is mine.

The jackal rips out the hare's bowels, but the world rolls on.

...So that someone might want to put you in a book...So that you may be worth putting in a book...Live like a hero...Be a main character. Otherwise, what is life for?

This is the place where bodies are their own signs.

الجريمة الكامنة في دواخلنا، يتوجب علينا إنزالها على أنفسنا، وليس على آخرين

I am… a farmgirl… not unaware that there is a hole between my legs that has never been filled.

The sun is setting, the sky is a tumult of oranges, reds and violets.

She inhabits her characters as a woman does, not a man.