Exactly as we might ask God, and do ask God, to change our fate. The difference is that in the story the… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
I really just wanted to write about three brothers. When you do that, though, it gives you this wonderful opportunity to tie… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
I think that's just what happens when you write a big bestseller. After that you need to find out: What's the best… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
When I write a book I'm always questioning the project as a whole. I always feel I might have to just throw… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
When you translate the American writers who are best with dialogue into German - someone like Elmore Leonard, or Tom Wolfe, who's… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
I think I can work anywhere, but you don't get the same kind of inspiration everywhere. New York theater has become a… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
For a while I never show anybody what I'm writing, and during that time I need the feeling that publishing is only… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
I wanted to write a book that would leave open many riddles and mysteries, even to me. Of course in some cases… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
Usually I work out the plot before I start. This time I thought: Writers always talk about not knowing where a book… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
So the fact that there's someone who's planning what happens to the characters, writing it down, means that the characters always have… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
When I look at life I try to be as agnostic and unmetaphysical as possible. So I have to admit that, most probably, we… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
“Sweat was running down my face. The next turn wasn’t too bad, and I noticed an old barn on the roadside, the roof caved-in,… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
A neglect of one's sentimental education early in life could bear the most unfortunate fruit. — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
It was both odd and unjust, a real example of pitiful arbitrariness of existance, that you were born into a particular time & held… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
You say fate is almost indispensable to literature - I think it's completely indispensable, at least in a novel, because a novel always has… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
When I write a book I'm always questioning the project as a whole. I always feel I might have to just throw it away… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
Also, whenever you have direct speech, and I don't quite know why, but it always gets better in English. Dialogue, the flow of dialogue,… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
One of the points where the art world is at its most metaphysical is in this weird aspect of the power of the expert.… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
Usually I work out the plot before I start. This time I thought: Writers always talk about not knowing where a book is going… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
For a while I never show anybody what I'm writing, and during that time I need the feeling that publishing is only an option.… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
German can take a lot more pathos than English can. When you say "pathetic" in English it's a disparaging term, but when you say… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
English has a better way with colloquialisms. It has colloquialisms that are colorful and expressive but not too heavy or distracting. In German, if… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
It's also one of these strange points where metaphysics converges with economy. Because really what the experts are doing is creating value by banishing… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
Usually the German translators do something terrible, especially with Tom Wolfe, which is that they make it local. So if the characters are from… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share
