"I think technique can be taught
but I think the only way to learn to write is to read,
and I see writing and reading as completely related.
One almost couldn't exist without the other."
[John McGahern, who would today celebrate his 91. birthday.]
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| Sláinte, John! |
„Ich liebe den einzelnen Menschen, jeder, der mir näher kommt, den ich näher kennenlernen möchte, im Großen und Ganzen, mit Ausnahmen. Aber insgesamt betrachte ich die Menschheit doch ein bisschen als Ungeziefer, weil sie unsere Erde zerstört.“
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I love the individual human being, everyone who comes close to me, who I want to get to know better, by and large, with exceptions. But on the whole, I see humanity as a bit of a vermin because it is destroying our planet."
Herbert Rosendorfer (19 February 1934 – 20 September 2012
We live now in an era where normal values have been displaced.
The good is called bad, the bad - good.
Anna Politkovskaya (30 August 1958 – 6 October 2006)
I've got a deep dark suspicion
that pretty soon we should start
looking around for another planet
for ourselves.
Wolfgang Borchert (20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947)
As a writer, I write to see.
If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write.
It's a process of discovery.
John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)
I have never seen an ass
who talked like a human being,
but I have met many human beings
who talked like asses.
Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)
The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a nasty discovery.
Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)
The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a nasty discovery.
Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)
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| "It is clear that it is not man who has created the universe - whether you believe in God or in gods or deny any divine presence - man cannot alter the laws that govern the universe without damaging it." |
"Our civilization, bequeathed to us by fierce adventurers, eaters of meat and hunters, is so full of hurry and combat, so busy about many things which perhaps are of no importance, that it cannot but see something feeble in a civilization which smiles as it refuses to make the battlefield the test of excellence."James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941)
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| Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity. |
John Hume (18 January 1937 – 3 August 2020)
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| All injustice and suffering on earth has its reason in the fact that experiences cannot be transmitted. At the most, they can be communicated. Between the appropriate and the unbearable lies the whole path of experience, which only one person can ever travel alone. Just as only one person ever dies alone and no one knows anything about death.... |
The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a fatal discovery.
Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)
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| I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it. |
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| Civilizations * “What would you do if you ruled the world?” The gigolo replied that he would abolish all laws. Barthes said: “Even grammar?” |
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| I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other. |
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| There is nothing more marvellous or madder than real life. |
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| But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved. |
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