"I stayed alive therefore I am."

Imre Kertész Literature See all quotes by Imre Kertész →

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“You just sit here and tolerate it, the same way everything in this country is tolerated. Every deception, every lie, every bullet in the brains. Just as you are already tolerating bullets in the brains that will be implemented only after the bullet is put in your brains.”

“Man, when reduced to nothing, or in other words a survivor, is not tragic but comic, because he has no fate.”

“Man is always a little at fault, that’s all.”

“At any rate I found myself writing because I had to write, although I didn’t know why.”

“Anyone who wants something else is Jewish.”

“I am sick of atrocities, though these are now the natural order of our world. And I would still like to act!”

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"Oh, men! You who are struggling and longing for that which is denied you and that which belongs to you—the right to live, to be free, and to enjoy your legitimate share of the only world you have acce…"

— J. Howard Moore

Philosophy1862–1916

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"The whole idea of interviews is in itself absurd – one cannot answer deep questions about what one's life was like – one writes novels about it."

— Anthony Powell

Literature1905–2000

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"Orientation in time, space, and status are the essentials of social existence, and the Balinese, although they make very strong spirits for ceremonial occasions, with a few startling exceptions resist…"

— Margaret Mead

ethnology1901–1978

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"People will kill you. Over time. They will shave out every last morsel of fun in you with little, harmless sounding phrases that people uses every day, like: 'Be realistic!'" (2009)]"

— Dylan Moran

Entertainment1971

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