You say fate is almost indispensable to literature - I think it's completely indispensable, at least in a novel, because a novel always has a plot. Even if nothing happens, even if someone just spends a day walking around Dublin,… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
English has a better way with colloquialisms. It has colloquialisms that are colorful and expressive but not too heavy or distracting. In German, if you use colloquialisms, it quickly descends into some kind of dialect literature. — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
When I look at life I try to be as agnostic and unmetaphysical as possible. So I have to admit that, most probably, we… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
“Sweat was running down my face. The next turn wasn’t too bad, and I noticed an old barn on the roadside, the roof caved-in,… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
A neglect of one's sentimental education early in life could bear the most unfortunate fruit. — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
It was both odd and unjust, a real example of pitiful arbitrariness of existance, that you were born into a particular time & held… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
You say fate is almost indispensable to literature - I think it's completely indispensable, at least in a novel, because a novel always has… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
When I write a book I'm always questioning the project as a whole. I always feel I might have to just throw it away… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
Also, whenever you have direct speech, and I don't quite know why, but it always gets better in English. Dialogue, the flow of dialogue,… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
One of the points where the art world is at its most metaphysical is in this weird aspect of the power of the expert.… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
“But why people? I asked. What does he care about people? He’s a bear.” — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
Usually I work out the plot before I start. This time I thought: Writers always talk about not knowing where a book is going… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
For a while I never show anybody what I'm writing, and during that time I need the feeling that publishing is only an option.… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
German can take a lot more pathos than English can. When you say "pathetic" in English it's a disparaging term, but when you say… — Daniel Kehlmann Copy Share Image
