For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence? — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The beauty of New York is unintentional; it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
No matter how much we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Only a literary work that reveals an unknown fragment of human existence has a reason for being. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The river flowed from century to century, and human affairs play themselves out on its banks. Play themselves out to be forgotten… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
given the nature of the human couple, the love of a man and a woman is a priori inferior to that which… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
... characters are not born like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor containing in a… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The light that radiates from the great novels time can never dim, for human existence is perpetually being forgotten by man and… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
This symmetrical composition--the same motif at the beginning and at the end--may seem quite "novelistic" to you, and I am willing to… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naïve of questions are truly… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The irresistible proliferation of graphomania shows me that everyone without exception bears a potential writer within him, so that the entire human… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
A mismatched outfit, a slightly defective denture, an exquisite mediocrity of the soul-those are the details that make a woman real, alive.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
There are metaphysical problems, problems of human existence, that philosophy has never known how to grasp in all their concreteness and that… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“The future is only an indifferent void no one cares about, but the past is filled with life, and its countenance is irritating, repellent,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“From that time on they both looked forward to sleeping together. I might even say that the goal of their lovemaking was not so… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Beauty in the European sense has always had a premeditated quality to it. We've always had an aesthetic intention and a long-range plan. That's… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The beauty of New York is unintentional; it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Children, Never look Back!" and this meant that we must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory . for children have… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Our lives may be separate, but they run in the same direction, like parallel lines.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end." Love is a battle?" said Franz.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“He remained annoyed with himself until he realized that not knowing what he wanted was actually quite natural. We can never know what to… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Whenever I think about ancient cultures nostalgia seizes me. Perhaps this is nothing but envy of the sweet slowness of the history of that… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Do stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? For all my skepticism, some trace of irrational superstition did survive in me, the… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
