What should our second generation have done, what should it do with the knowledge of the horrors of the extermination of the Jews? We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable, we may… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share
“Ne ispada li, onda, da je egzistencijalni umor rezultat premalog, a ne prevelikog angažovanja? Postajemo li umorni usled toga što olakšavamo sebi situaciju, a… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
Why? Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths? Why does the memory of years of happy marriage… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“...if something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something today, or feel homesick, I feel the yearnings and homesickness from back then. The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share
“When she had fallen asleep on me, and the saw in the yard was quiet, and a blackbird was singing as the colors of… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“To anyone ignorant of history, it would be easy to see ways of life in earlier times simply as ways of life in foreign… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“What is it?' 'Nothing,' he said, and put his arm around her. 'You sighed.' 'I'd like to be further along than I am.' She snuggled against his side. 'I know that feeling. But don't we make progress in fits and starts? Nothing happens for a long time, then suddenly we get a surprise, have an encounter, reach a decision point,… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share
“But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“I wanted to pose myself both tasks - understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both” — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
Sometimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended unhappily.. — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“I had no one to point at. Certainly not my parents, because I had nothing to accuse them of. The zeal for letting in the daylight, with which , as a member of the concentration camps seminar, I had condemned my father to shame, had passed, and it embarrassed me. But what other people in my social environment had done,… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share
Sometimes I had the feeling that all of us in his family were like pets to him. The dog you take for a walk, the cat you play with and that curls up in your lap, purring, to be stroked - you can be fond of them, you can even need them to a certain extent, and nonetheless the whole… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share
