“Does assimilation mean that they never came up against naked prejudice? Does it mean that you understood where the limits of your social world were and you stuck to them?” — 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… — 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
The problem is that I am in the wrong century to burn things. I am the wrong generation to let it go. — Edmund de Waal Copy Share
“How objects are handed on is all about story-telling. I am giving you this because I love you. Or because it was given to… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share
“Japanese things - laquers, netsuke, prints - conjure a picture of a place where sensations are always new, where art pours out of daily… — Edmund de Waal Copy Share
