“The presentation scene itself we skip. It is not a good idea to interrupt the narrative too often, since storytelling works by… — 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 are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather… — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would… — 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
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
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
“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 Image
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 Image
The spark of true poetry flashes when ideas are juxtaposed that no one has yet thought of bringing together. — J. M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
...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 Image
