Sten Nadolny Quotes

If there had been no war, perhaps I would have already discovered a lot by now.

Present and past—what had Dr. Orme said about that? The light was most fully in the present when, flaring up, it met John's eye directly. Whatever else he saw must have been lit up before and now shone only within his own eye—a light of the past.

The world is full of important ideas, but I'll follow my own mind.

Es gibt zwei Sorten von Männern. Die einen verstehen 'etwas von Frauen', die anderen sind solche, die einfach 'Frauen verstehen'.

He didn't want to learn another thing. Motionless, he constantly stared at the same spot, unseeing. He breathed as if the air were loam. ...he no longer wanted to be quick. ...he wanted to slow down until he died. ...Outside the passage of time... until they'd think him dead. ...The alterations of day and night would finally become just a flickering... John sucked in the air and held his breath. ...everything would be as it had been before his birth. He would have never been.

The game went on. John had understood nothing. Everything was too fast: the game, the other's talk, the goings-on in the street...

The most distant mountains, like himself, just stood there and gazed.

There are two varieties of men. Some understand 'some women', the others are those who simply 'understand women'.

In this place they knew him and were aware of how hard he had to strain. He would rather be among strangers who might possibly be more like himself. There had to be such people—perhaps far, far away. And there he would be able to learn more easily how to be fast.

When people talk too fast the content becomes as superfluous as the speed.

Now everything would be different; a little today, all of it tomorrow.

'History is intercourse with greatness and duration. It allows us to rise above time.' ...that was tempting. But he couldn't earn any money with it.

The spirit of history can't be caught in pictures. ...History, seriously pursued, belongs in the realm of uncertainty. A picture is a certainty.

How did Tom get there? Again, a piece of time had dropped out.

I'm not afraid because I can only imagine nothingness as rather quiet.