Er was een dokter in de zaal.

“We looked at each other. At that moment, I was also a hundred percent sure that Van Dieren and I were thinking the same…

— Herman Koch

The stupid woman is the one who thinks she doesn’t need any help.

— Herman Koch

“Christ, what an asshole!" Babette said.”

— Herman Koch

“Some people might say it's not smart to be so insecure about what you wear. But that's not how I see it. The stupid…

— Herman Koch

“… when Michel came home from school, for example, and everything was as it should be. My own voice, above all, asking him what…

— Herman Koch

“They all had to do something: they had to make a start in life; they had to go through life. Even though a single…

— Herman Koch

In one way or another, every parent is curious what their children... what are they doing when we don't see?... What double lives are…

— Herman Koch

“Life as a widow, she thinks, will always be like this. The friends will go on proposing toasts for months (for years!). To her.…

— Herman koch

“The smile remained suspended on her face, but it was as though it had been disconnected from the emotion behind it – if there…

— Herman Koch

“I let go of the pump as well now. I registered a sense of fatigue. And regret. It was the same fatigue and regret…

— Herman Koch

“Is it life threatening?” they asked. They said it slightly sotto voce, but you could hear the thirst for sensation right through it: when…

— Herman Koch

“happiness needs nothing but itself, it doesn’t have to be validated.”

— Herman Koch

Around here, we're as happy as God in France.

— Herman Koch

“...het was van dat weer dat je niet weet of het al avond wordt of dat de dag nog moet beginnen...”

— Herman Koch

“When we were still living at home, all he ever drank was cola, huge amounts of it; he had no problem knocking back an…

— Herman Koch