So-called real life has only once interfered with me, and it had been a far cry from what the words, lines, books had prepared me for. Fate had to do with blind seers, oracles, choruses announcing death, not with panting next to the refrigerator, fumbling with condoms, waiting in a Honda parked round the corner and surreptitious encounters in a Lisbon hotel. Only the written word exists, everything one must do oneself is without form, subject to contingency without rhyme or reason. It takes too long. And if it ends badly the metre isn't right, and there's no way to cross things out.
She had nothing to do all day ... but did it with the greatest possible speed. - Cees Nooteboom
She had nothing to do all day ... but did it with the greatest possible speed.
- Cees Nooteboom
I find it unbearable to need a body in order to exist. - Cees Nooteboom
I find it unbearable to need a body in order to exist.
Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases. - Cees Nooteboom
Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases.
Conversations consist for the most part of things one does not say. - Cees Nooteboom
Conversations consist for the most part of things one does not say.
Through men ... you learn how the world is. Through women you learn what it is. - Cees Nooteboom
Through men ... you learn how the world is. Through women you learn what it is.
I am a hindrance to the world, and the world is a hindrance to me. - Cees Nooteboom
I am a hindrance to the world, and the world is a hindrance to me.
I have never cared much for people. Most of them are cowards, conformists, muddleheads, moneygrubbers, and they infect each other. - Cees Nooteboom
I have never cared much for people. Most of them are cowards, conformists, muddleheads, moneygrubbers, and they infect each other.
Man is a sad mammal that combs its hair. - Cees Nooteboom
Man is a sad mammal that combs its hair.
Surely one zoo in the world should have the courage to draw the ultimate conclusion about our ancestry? A cage with Homo Sapiens in all its varying f… - Cees Nooteboom
Surely one zoo in the world should have the courage to draw the ultimate conclusion about our ancestry? A cage with Homo Sapiens in all its varying f…
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