--- title: "8 Coetzee Quotes by 8 authors" description: "Browse 8 Coetzee quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Coetzee sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png" --- > [Out of all the fighters that I have developed, clothed, financed, Gerrie Coetzee is the only one who had the decency to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-king/out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-developed-clothed-financed-gerrie/) [Don King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-king/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png) > [Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marlene-van-niekerk/read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomology-mineralogy-paleontology/) [Marlene van Niekerk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marlene-van-niekerk/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/marlene-van-niekerk-34386_able_read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomol_351896.jpg) > [There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He has an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laila-lalami/there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter-what-i-m-working-on-writers/) [Laila Lalami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laila-lalami/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58b/laila-lalami-25030_ability_there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter_1393328.png) > [“An aversion came over me that we feel for all the mutilated. Why is that so, do you think? Because they put…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-m-coetzee/an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-for-all-the-mutilated-why-is/) [J.M. Coetzee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-m-coetzee/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/53a/j-m-coetzee-2457_beauty_an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-fo_1515587.jpg) > [I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no matter how celebrated they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-murnane-markson-berger-and-in/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d68/teju-cole-2851_book_i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-mu_1702205.jpg) > [Disgrace is a subtle, multi-layered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh. Coetzee's prose…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-bailey/disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story-as-much-concerned-with/) [Paul Bailey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-bailey/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d63/paul-bailey-77644_ability_disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story_1959617.jpg) > [Notable American Women is a weird nougat of a book that suggests Coetzee, Kafka, Beckett, Barthelme, O'Brien, Orwell, Paley, Borges-and none of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/padgett-powell/notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat-of-a-book-that-suggests/) [Padgett Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/padgett-powell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/padgett-powell-14196_american-woman_notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat_2493159.png) > [I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynne-tillman/i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or-dostoyevsky-or-kafka-your/) [Lynne Tillman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lynne-tillman/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c03/lynne-tillman-5609_character_i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or_3123187.png) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/#itemlist", "name": "Coetzee Quotes", "numberOfItems": 8, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Out of all the fighters that I have developed, clothed, financed, Gerrie Coetzee is the only one who had the decency to say 'thanks'.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Don King" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-king/out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-developed-clothed-financed-gerrie/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Out of all the fighters that I have developed, clothed, financed, Gerrie Coetzee is the only one who had the…” — Don King", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not before you have read Thomas Mann in any case. Learn by copying, sentence by sentence some of the masters. Copy Coetzee's or Sebald's sentences and see what happens to your story. Consider creative non-fiction if you want to stay in South Africa. It might be the way to go. Never neglect back and hamstring exercises, otherwise you won't be able to write your novel. One needs one's buttocks to think.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marlene van Niekerk" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marlene-van-niekerk/read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomology-mineralogy-paleontology/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/marlene-van-niekerk-34386_able_read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomol_351896.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/marlene-van-niekerk-34386_able_read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomol_351896.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f9/marlene-van-niekerk-34386_able_read-non-fiction-history-biology-entomol_351896.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork…” — Marlene van Niekerk", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He has an ability to make you feel that he is writing for you alone.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Laila Lalami" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laila-lalami/there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter-what-i-m-working-on-writers/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58b/laila-lalami-25030_ability_there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter_1393328.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58b/laila-lalami-25030_ability_there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter_1393328.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58b/laila-lalami-25030_ability_there-are-writers-i-return-to-no-matter_1393328.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He…” — Laila Lalami", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“An aversion came over me that we feel for all the mutilated. Why is that so, do you think? Because they put us in mind of what we would rather forget: how easily, at the stroke of a sword or a knife, wholeness and beauty are forever undone? Perhaps. But toward you I felt a deeper revulsion. I could not put out of mind the softness of the tongue, its softness and wetness, and the fact that it does not live in the light; also how helpless it is before the knife, once the barrier of teeth has been passed. The tongue is like the heart, in that way, is it not?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "J.M. Coetzee" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-m-coetzee/an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-for-all-the-mutilated-why-is/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/53a/j-m-coetzee-2457_beauty_an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-fo_1515587.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/53a/j-m-coetzee-2457_beauty_an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-fo_1515587.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/53a/j-m-coetzee-2457_beauty_an-aversion-came-over-me-that-we-feel-fo_1515587.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“An aversion came over me that we feel for all the mutilated. Why is that so, do you think? Because they put…” — J.M. Coetzee", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no matter how celebrated they are, critics still consider them askance. Elizabeth Costello, for example, is a great novel, but it got quite a critical panning when it was published. The complaint was that it was simply a book of speeches, without the machinery of conventional fiction. Markson's books are compilations of facts and alleged facts, very artfully.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Teju Cole" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-murnane-markson-berger-and-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d68/teju-cole-2851_book_i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-mu_1702205.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d68/teju-cole-2851_book_i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-mu_1702205.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d68/teju-cole-2851_book_i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-mu_1702205.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no…” — Teju Cole", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Disgrace is a subtle, multi-layered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh. Coetzee's prose is chaste and lyrical without being self- conscious: it is a relief to encounter writing as quietly stylish as this. I was not totally convinced by Lurie's musical abilities, with regard to his proposed opera, but that is my sole complaint.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Bailey" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-bailey/disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story-as-much-concerned-with/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d63/paul-bailey-77644_ability_disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story_1959617.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d63/paul-bailey-77644_ability_disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story_1959617.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d63/paul-bailey-77644_ability_disgrace-is-a-subtle-multi-layered-story_1959617.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Disgrace is a subtle, multi-layered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male…” — Paul Bailey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Notable American Women is a weird nougat of a book that suggests Coetzee, Kafka, Beckett, Barthelme, O'Brien, Orwell, Paley, Borges-and none of them exactly. Finally you just have to chew it for its own private juice.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Padgett Powell" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/padgett-powell/notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat-of-a-book-that-suggests/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/padgett-powell-14196_american-woman_notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat_2493159.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/padgett-powell-14196_american-woman_notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat_2493159.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/235/padgett-powell-14196_american-woman_notable-american-women-is-a-weird-nougat_2493159.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Notable American Women is a weird nougat of a book that suggests Coetzee, Kafka, Beckett, Barthelme…” — Padgett Powell", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, \"Your characters aren't likeable.\" It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lynne Tillman" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynne-tillman/i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or-dostoyevsky-or-kafka-your/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c03/lynne-tillman-5609_character_i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or_3123187.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c03/lynne-tillman-5609_character_i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or_3123187.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c03/lynne-tillman-5609_character_i-don-t-think-anybody-says-to-coetzee-or_3123187.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, \"Your characters aren't likeable.\" It's not…” — Lynne Tillman", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/", "name": "Coetzee Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a5/don-king-6797_boxing_out-of-all-the-fighters-that-i-have-deve_73814.png" }, "description": "Browse 8 Coetzee quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Coetzee sayings and thoughts.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Coetzee Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```