Bernhard Schlink

The more I suffer, the more I love.

— Bernhard Schlink

“What do you want now? Your whole life in one hour?”

— Bernhard Schlink

“What keeps you awake at night? Demons.”

— Bernhard Schlink

When an airplane's engines fail, it is not the end of the flight.

— Bernhard Schlink

Bravery is good when the cause is good.

— Bernhard Schlink

Philosophy has forgotten about children

— Bernhard Schlink

“Sé que me pareció hermosa. Pero no consigo evocar su hermosura.”

— Bernhard Schlink

“The truth of what one says lies in what one does.”

— Bernhard Schlink

“I wanted to pose myself both tasks - understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both”

— Bernhard Schlink

“Acostumei-me a uma atitude debochada, superior, mostrando-me como alguém a quem nada afetava, abalava, desesperava.”

— Bernhard Schlink

“I knew none of it then - if indeed I know any of it now and am not just making patterns in…

— Bernhard Schlink

As an author, you can't expect a movie to be an illustration of the book. If that's what you hope for, you…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths?”

— Bernhard Schlink

why does what was beautiful shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths?

— Bernhard Schlink

“Is that what makes me sad? The eagerness and belief that filled me then and exacted a pledge from life that life…

— Bernhard Schlink

Or is there no such thing as 'too late'? Is there only 'late' and is 'late' always better than 'never'? I don't…

— Bernhard Schlink

So I was still guilty. And if I was not guilty because one cannot be guilty of betraying a criminal, then I…

— Bernhard Schlink

People who commit monstrous crimes are not necessarily monsters. If they were, things would be easy. But they aren't and it is…

— Bernhard Schlink

“I've written things about that, about how life's really big decisions aren't right or wrong, it's just that one lives different lives.…

— Bernhard Schlink

She was struggling, as she always had struggled, not to show what she could do but to hide what she couldn't do.…

— Bernhard Schlink

What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Executioners don’t hate the people they execute, and they execute them all the same. Because they’re ordered to. الجلادون لا يكرهون الناس الذين يعدمونهم ,إنهم يعدمونهم جميعاً بالطريقة نفسها لأنهم مأمورون بذلك.”

— Bernhard Schlink

There's this old saying that, if you aren't particularly gifted in natural sciences, if you don't want to become a teacher or…

— Bernhard Schlink

As a citizen and someone who was a judge on the constitutional law court for 18 years, I feel whenever I can…

— Bernhard Schlink

“I reread the Odyssey at that time, which I had first read in school and remembered as a story of a homecoming.But…

— Bernhard Schlink

“The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier…

— Bernhard Schlink

...I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. I…

— Bernhard Schlink

I took all the blame. I admitted mistakes I hadn't made, intentions I'd never had. Whenever she turned cold and hard, I…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Waking from a bad dream does not necessarily console you. It can also make you fully aware of the horror you just…

— Bernhard Schlink

What should our second generation have done, what should it do with the knowledge of the horrors of the extermination of the…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Penso, chego a um resultado, mantenho o resultado preso a uma decisão e faço a experiência de que a ação é uma…

— Bernhard Schlink

It is hard for me to imagine that I felt good about behaving like that. I also remember that the smallest gesture…

— Bernhard Schlink

“At first I wanted to write our story in order to be free of it. But the memories wouldn’t come back for…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Disavowal is an unusual form of betrayal. From the outside it is impossible to tell if you are disowning someone or simply…

— Bernhard Schlink

“But love of our parents is the only love for which we are not responsible. And perhaps we are responsible even for…

— Bernhard Schlink

“The outside world, the world of free time in the yard or the garden or on the street, is only a distant…

— Bernhard Schlink

“They waited awhile before lighting the candles; the gloom allowed the past to slip cozily into the present. But the memories were…

— Bernhard Schlink

“It was like being a prisoner on death row who survives month after month and becomes accustomed to the life, while he…

— Bernhard Schlink

“Exploration! Exploring the past! We students in the camps seminar considered ourselves radical explorers. We tore open the windows and let in…

— Bernhard Schlink

I didn't like the way I looked, the way I dressed and moved, what I achieved and what I felt I was…

— Bernhard Schlink