“As I looked and looked, the living face became visible in the dead, the young in the old. This is what must happen to old married couples, I thought: the young man is preserved in the old one for her,… — Bernhard Schlink Copy Share Image
“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
