You say fate is almost indispensable to literature - I think it's completely indispensable, at least in a novel, because a novel always has a plot. E…

- Daniel Kehlmann

I think I can work anywhere, but you don't get the same kind of inspiration everywhere. New York theater has become a big inspiration for me. I only …

- Daniel Kehlmann

People who have experienced nothing love to tell stories while people who have experienced a great deal suddenly have no stories to tell at all.

- Daniel Kehlmann

A neglect of one's sentimental education early in life could bear the most unfortunate fruit.

- Daniel Kehlmann

I wanted to write a book that would leave open many riddles and mysteries, even to me. Of course in some cases I do know the answers, but in many oth…

- Daniel Kehlmann

I really just wanted to write about three brothers. When you do that, though, it gives you this wonderful opportunity to tie together different socia…

- Daniel Kehlmann

When I look at life I try to be as agnostic and unmetaphysical as possible. So I have to admit that, most probably, we do not have a fate. But I thin…

- Daniel Kehlmann

Usually the German translators do something terrible, especially with Tom Wolfe, which is that they make it local. So if the characters are from Harl…

- Daniel Kehlmann

One of the points where the art world is at its most metaphysical is in this weird aspect of the power of the expert. There are experts who claim the…

- Daniel Kehlmann