--- title: "1 Coetzee Quotes By Teju Cole" description: "1 Coetzee quotes by Teju Cole. Plus more from Teju Cole and more Coetzee sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d68/teju-cole-2851_book_i-m-grateful-for-the-likes-of-kundera-mu_1702205.jpg" --- > [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…](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) ## More by Teju Cole > [One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/one-of-the-difficulties-of-photography-is-that-it-is-much-better-at/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [Note-taking is important to me: a week's worth of reading notes (or "thoughts I had in the shower" notes) is cumulatively more interesting than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/note-taking-is-important-to-me-a-week-s-worth-of-reading-notes-or/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [It's an Obama book, certainly. I was delighted, and astonished, to hear recently that he was reading it. It's a book about a new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/it-s-an-obama-book-certainly-i-was-delighted-and-astonished-to-hear/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history is. You're…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/because-i-m-an-art-historian-i-have-some-experience-of-writing-that/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [For purposes of marketing, writers are designated as poets, novelists, or something else. But writing is about matchmaking, an attempt to marry sensations with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/for-purposes-of-marketing-writers-are-designated-as-poets-novelists/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“Most of the people around me yesterday were middle-aged or old. I am used to it, but it never ceases to surprise me how…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/most-of-the-people-around-me-yesterday-were-middle-aged-or-old-i-am/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“I look at his hands. In those hands is new knowledge.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/i-look-at-his-hands-in-those-hands-is-new-knowledge/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“The mind roams more widely in the dark than it does in light. It is no surprise, then, stepping out of the unlit house…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/the-mind-roams-more-widely-in-the-dark-than-it-does-in-light-it-is-no/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“Each person must, on some level, take himself as the calibration point for normalcy, must assume that the room of his own mind is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/each-person-must-on-some-level-take-himself-as-the-calibration-point/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [Writing as writing. Writing as rioting. Writing as righting. On the best days, all three.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/writing-as-writing-writing-as-rioting-writing-as-righting-on-the-best/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“The site was a palimpsest, as was all the city, written, erased, rewritten...Generations rushed through the eye of the needle, and I, one of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/the-site-was-a-palimpsest-as-was-all-the-city-written-erased/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [“As I contemplated the silent world before me, I thought of the many romantic ideas attached to blindness. Ideas of unusual sensitivity and genius…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/as-i-contemplated-the-silent-world-before-me-i-thought-of-the-many/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [Always say 'no pun intended' to draw attention to the intended pun.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/always-say-no-pun-intended-to-draw-attention-to-the-intended-pun/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [In a sense, Open City is a kind of Wunderkammer, one of those little rooms assembled with bric-a-brac by Renaissance scholars. I don't mean…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/in-a-sense-open-city-is-a-kind-of-wunderkammer-one-of-those-little/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) > [One of the chief characteristics of a mob is its quickness. It is sudden. It pounces.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teju-cole/one-of-the-chief-characteristics-of-a-mob-is-its-quickness-it-is/) [Teju Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teju-cole/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coetzee/teju-cole/#itemlist", "name": "1 Coetzee Quotes By Teju Cole", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "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. 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