Yann Martel Quotes

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent.

"I still smart a little at the slight. When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say, "You've got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. Move on!" The skull snickers and moves ever closer, but that doesn't surprise me. The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity — it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can."

Christianity is a religion in a rush. Look at the world created in seven says. Even on a symbolic lovel, that's creation in frenzy.

We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat.

Some of us give up[…] with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others — and I am one of those — never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success.

Dawn came and matters were worse for it. Because now, emerging from the darkness, I could see, what before I had only felt, the great curtains of rain crashing down on me from towering heights and the waves that threw a path over me and trod me underfoot one after another.

My ears were full. Nothing more, not one more sound, could push into them and be registered.

I ask you, is it the fig tree's fault that it's not the season for figs? What kind of thing is that to do to an innocent tree, wither it instantly?

Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it wont be for long.

"...I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. [...] It is important in life to conclude things properly. Only then you can let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse..."
~Life of Pi, chapter 94

Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater imperative.

"All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. - "The Life of Pi

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.

There people fail to realise that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. - Pi Patel in Life of Pi