Language Quote by J. M. Coetzee

“For I am no orator. What would I have said if they had let me go on? That it is worse to beat a…

— J. M. Coetzee

To me, a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether you have a white or a black skin,…

— J. M. Coetzee

The spark of true poetry flashes when ideas are juxtaposed that no one has yet thought of bringing together.

— J. M. Coetzee

“But with this woman it is as if there is no interior, only a surface across which I hunt back and forth seeking entry.…

— J. M. Coetzee

You think you know what is just and what is not. I understand. We all think we know." I had no doubt, myself, then,…

— J. M. Coetzee

The highest type of intelligence, says Aristotle, manifests itself in an ability to see connections where no one has seen them before, that is,…

— J. M. Coetzee

I am corrupted to the bone with the beauty of this forsaken world.

— J. M. Coetzee

Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to…

— J. M. Coetzee

Denunciations of the manipulativeness of advertisers can unfortunately all too easily be turned on their heads into denunciations of the gullibility of consumers. Both…

— J. M. Coetzee

Deprived of human intercourse, I inevitably overvalue the imagination and expect it to make the mundane glow with an aura of self-transcendence. Yet why…

— J. M. Coetzee

What is miraculous about the past is that we have succeeded--God knows how--in making thousands and millions of individual human beings, lock well enought…

— J. M. Coetzee

...the program of scientific experimentation that leads you to conclude that animals are imbeciles is profoundly anthropocentric. It values being able to find your…

— J. M. Coetzee