“It makes me wonder what belonging to a place means. Charles died a Russian in Paris. Viktor called it wrong and was a Russian in Vienna for fifty years, then Austrian, then a citizen of the Reich, and then stateless.… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“I do not know where Viktor and Rudolf were taken. I cannot find the records. I never Elisabeth or Iggie. It is possible that they were taken to the Hotel Metropole, which has been sequestered as the headquarters of the Gestapo. There are many other lock-ups for this flood of Jews. They are beaten, of course; but they are also… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share
“And I'm not entitled to nostalgia about all that lost wealth and glamour from a century ago. And I am not interested in thin.… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“And someone turns out the lights in the library, as if being in the dark will make them invisible, but the noise reaches into… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“Does assimilation mean that they never came up against naked prejudice? Does it mean that you understood where the limits of your social world… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“The house wasn't theirs anymore. It was full of people, some in uniforms and some in suits. People counting rooms, making lists of objects… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“It makes me wonder what belonging to a place means. Charles died a Russian in Paris. Viktor called it wrong and was a Russian… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“There is something about that burning of all those letters that gives me pause: why should everything be made clear and be brought into… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“He stands with his hands in his pockets, well-dressed and self-assured, with his life before him and a plush armchair behind him.” — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“You just hope, if you make things as I do, that they can make their way in the world and have some longevity.” — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“Stories and objects share something, a patina...Perhaps patina is a process of rubbing back so that the essential is revealed...But it also seems additive,… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“Kövecses radiated the sense of self-sufficiency that comes about when there are lots of children in a big house.” — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
“The vitrines exist so that you can see objects, but not touch them: they frame things, suspend them, tantalise through distance.” — Edmund de Waal Copy Share Image
