“Poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response.” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
“I'm sorry, my child, I just find it hard to whip up an interest in the subject. It's admirable, what you do,… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
“She does not reply. She would rather hide her face, and he knows why. Because of the disgrace. Because of the shame.… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share Image
“I urge you: don't cut short these thought-trains of yours. Follow them through to their end. Your thoughts and your feelings. Follow them through… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“I truly believe I am not afraid of death. What I shrink from, I believe, is the shame of dying as stupid and befuddled… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“Technically he is old enough to be her father; but then, technically one can be a father at twelve.” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“I remember asking John, after Dusklands, what new project he had on the go. His answer was vague. 'There is always something or the… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“The truth is, he tired of criticism, tired of prose measured by the yard." --Disgrace” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“Since I was in flight from religion, I assumed that my classmates had to be in flight from religion too, albeit in a quieter,… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“Lucy was frightened, frightened near to death. Her voice choked, she could not breath, her limbs went numb. "This is not happening", she said… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“It occurs to me that we crush insects beneath our feet, miracles of creation too, beetles, worms, cockroaches, ants, in their various ways.” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“He sits with the pen in his hand, holding himself back from a descent into representations that have no place in the world, on… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“Do you remember Vlek, who was such a good sheepdog that she and Jakob alone could drive a whole flock past you at the… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“We are accustomed to believe that our world was created by God speaking the Word; but I ask, may it not rather be that… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“...from the oppression of such freedom who would not welcome the liberation of confinement?” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“If he has a last thought, if there is time for a last thought, it will simply be, So this is what a last… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“At what age , he wonders, did Origen castrate himself? Not the most graceful solution, but then ageing is not a graceful bussines.” — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
“...he seems to be on the brink of one of his bad spells again, one of the fits of lugubrious self-pity that turn into… — J.M. Coetzee Copy Share
