The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role. — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
In its conception the literature prize belongs to days when a writer could still be thought of as, by virtue of his… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
Some years ago I wrote a book called The House on Eccles Street. To write this book I had to think my… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
There is nothing more inimical to writing than the spirit of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism abhors the play of signs, the endlessness of writing.… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
“For I am no orator. What would I have said if they had let me go on? That it is worse to beat a… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
To me, a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether you have a white or a black skin,… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
The spark of true poetry flashes when ideas are juxtaposed that no one has yet thought of bringing together. — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
“But with this woman it is as if there is no interior, only a surface across which I hunt back and forth seeking entry.… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
You think you know what is just and what is not. I understand. We all think we know." I had no doubt, myself, then,… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
The highest type of intelligence, says Aristotle, manifests itself in an ability to see connections where no one has seen them before, that is,… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
Denunciations of the manipulativeness of advertisers can unfortunately all too easily be turned on their heads into denunciations of the gullibility of consumers. Both… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
Deprived of human intercourse, I inevitably overvalue the imagination and expect it to make the mundane glow with an aura of self-transcendence. Yet why… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
What is miraculous about the past is that we have succeeded--God knows how--in making thousands and millions of individual human beings, lock well enought… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
...the program of scientific experimentation that leads you to conclude that animals are imbeciles is profoundly anthropocentric. It values being able to find your… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness. — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
“The Empire does not require that its servants love each other, merely that they perform their duty.” — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share
![“[Hariharan is] an outstanding writer.” quote by J. M. Coetzee](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/41f/j-m-coetzee-2-5391_outstanding_hariharan-is-an-outstanding-writer-16898_1689880.jpg)
