Fifty years after half a million gypsies were exterminated in the Second World War - thousands of them in Auschwitz - we're again preparing the mass killing of this minority.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the ongoing persecution of marginalized groups, comparing past atrocities to current events.
Antonio Tabucchi's quote serves as a chilling reminder of historical injustices faced by the Romani people during the Holocaust, urging society to reflect on its failures to prevent similar occurrences in the present. It calls attention to the cyclical nature of violence and discrimination against minorities, warning that the lessons of history must be learned and acted upon to avoid repeating them.
In practice
During a speech on human rights, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for vigilance against oppression.
Like a blazing comet, I've traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I've been a man, a woman, an old person, a little girl, I've been the crowds on the grand boulevards of the capital cities of the West, I've been the serene Buddha of the East, whose calm and wisdom we envy. I've known honor and dishonor, enthusiasm and exhaustion. ...I've been the sun and the moon, and everything because life is not enough.
Rather than regret for what I have written, I feel regret for what I shall never be able to read.
It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.
There are ways in, journeys to the center of life, through time; through air, matter, dream and thought. The ways are not always mapped or charted, but sometimes being lost, if there is such a thing, is the sweetest place to be. And always, in this search, a person might find that she is already there, at the center of the world. It may be a broken world, but it is glorious nonetheless.
Non-Indian writers usually say "Great Spirit," "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four-Legged, and Winged." Mixed-blood writers usually say "Creator, "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four- Legged, and Winged." Indian writers usually say "God," "Mother Earth," "Human Being, Dog, and Bird."
The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.
Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don't want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure.
In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
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