Quotes from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“I answer that I try to write true stories but that at a given point the story becomes unbearable because of it’s very truth, and then I have to change it. I tell her that I try to tell my story but all of a sudden I can’t-I don’t have the courage, it hurts too much. And so I embellish everything and describe things not as they happened but the way I wished they happened.
She says, “Yes, there are lives sadder than the saddest of books.” I say, “Yes. No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“You don't want to fight the enemy anymore?"
"I don't want to fight anyone. I have no enemies. I want to go home.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“You will forget. Life is like that. Everything goes in time. Memories blur, pain diminishes. I remember my wife as one remembers a bird or a flower”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Seen nothing? Idiot! We have all the work and all the worry: children to feed, wounds to tend. Once the war is over, you men are all heroes. The dead: heroes. The survivors: heroes. The maimed: heroes. That’s why you invented war. It’s your war. You wanted it, so get on with it – heroes, my ass!”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“On our way home we throw the apples, the biscuits, the chocolate and the coins in the tall grass by the roadside. It is impossible to throw away the stroking on our hair”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“As soon as you begin to think, you can no longer love life”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“And death hasn’t come. It never does come when you call it. It enjoys torturing us. I’ve been calling for it for years and it pays me no attention”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Every one of us commits a fatal mistake sometime in his life. When we realize it, the damage is already done”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Yes, sir. Blackmail…Yes. It’s deplorable that we’ve been forced to this”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“People are cruel. They like to kill. It’s the war that has taught them that. And there are explosives lying around everywhere”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Le parole che definiscono i sentimenti sono molto vaghe; è meglio evitare il loro impiego e attenersi alle descrizioni degli oggetti, degli esseri umani e di se stessi, vale a dire alla descrizione fedele dei fatti.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“My walls no longer protect me. They never protected me. Their solidity is mere illusion, their whiteness is stained”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“It is impossible to throw away the stroking on our hair.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“So che morirò, Peter, ma non capisco. Al posto di un solo cadavere, quello di mia sorella, ce ne sarà un secondo, il mio. Ma chi ha bisogno di un secondo cadavere? Dio certamente no, Lui non sa che farsene dei nostri corpi. La società? Ci guadagnerebbe un libro o dei libri se mi lasciasse vivere, invece di guadagnarci un cadavere in più che non gioverà a nessuno.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“I miei figli non giocano.
Cosa fanno?
Si preparano ad attraversare la vita.
Dico:
Io la vita l'ho attraversata e non ho trovato nulla.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“– Then why are you begging?
– To find out what effect it has and to observe people’s reaction”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“I don't think. I can't allow myself the luxury. I've lived with fear since I was a child.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Later, with time, we no longer need a shawl over our eyes or grass in our ears. The one playing the blind man simply turns his gaze inward, and the deaf one shuts his ears to all sounds”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Un uomo dice: -Tu chiudi il becco! Le donne non sanno niente della guerra. La donna dice: -Non sanno niente? Coglione! Abbiamo tutto il lavoro, tutte le preoccupazioni: i bambini da sfamare. i feriti da curare. Voi, una volta finita la guerra siete tutti degli eroi. Morti: eroi. Sopravvissuti: eroi. Mutilati: eroi. E' per questo che avete inventato la guerra, voi uomini. e' la vostra guerra. L'avete voluta voi. fatela allora, eroi dei miei stivali!”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Crying is no use, you know. We never cry, even though we aren’t men yet, like you”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“It’s hardly matters whether it’s true or false. The point is the slander. People love scandal”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Я убежден, Лукас, что всякое человеческое существо рождается, чтобы написать книгу, и ни для чего другого.”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Un uomo dice:
- Tu chiudi il becco! Le donne non sanno niente della guerra.
La donna dice:
- Non sanno niente? Coglione! Abbiamo tutto il lavoro, tutte le preoccupazioni: i bambini da sfamare, i feriti da curare. Voi, una volta finita la guerra siete tutti degli eroi. Morti: eroi. Sopravvissuti: eroi. Mutilati: eroi. E' per questo che avete inventato la guerra, voi uomini. E' la vostra guerra. L'avete voluta voi, fatela allora, eroi dei miei stivali!”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Lucas chiede:
- Non sei mai triste?
- No, perché una cosa mi consola sempre di un'altra.

(una bambina)”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“The frontier has been rebuilt. It is now impassable. Our country is surrounded by barbed wire; we are completely cut off from the rest of the world”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“It is easier to give than to receive, is that it? Pride is a sin, Father”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“The people have already atoned
For the past and the future”
― Ágota Kristóf, quote from The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

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Popular quotes

“In our folk nobody has any experience of youth, there’s barely even any time for being a toddler. The children simply don’t have any time in which they might be children........Indeed... there’s simply no way that we would be able to provide our children with a viable childhood, one that is real. Naturally, there are consequences. There’s a certain ever present, not to be liquidated childishness that permeates our folk; We often act in ways that are totally and utterly ridiculous and, indeed, precisely like children we do things that are crazy, letting loose with our assets in a manner that is bereft of all rationality, prodigious in our celebrations, partaking in a light-headed frivolousness that is divorced from all sensibility, and often enough all simply for the sake of some small token of fun, so much do we love having our small amusements. But our folk isn’t only childish, to a certain extent we also age prematurely, childhood and old age mix themselves differently with us than by others. We don’t have any youth, we jump right away into maturity and, then, we remain grown-ups for too long and as a consequence to this there’s a broad shadow of a certain tiredness and a sort of hopelessness that colours our essential nature, a nature that as a whole is otherwise so tenacious and permeated by hope, strong hope. This, no doubt, this is related to why we’re so disinclined toward music—we’re too old for music, so much excitement, so much passion doesn’t sit well with our heaviness;”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Complete Short Stories

“The endorphin kick from the ping of a received text or a new e-mail.”
― Blake Crouch, quote from Wayward

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― Sam Kean, quote from The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code

“We have developed from the geocentric cosmologies of Ptolemy and his forebears, through the heliocentric cosmology of Copernicus and Galileo, to the modern picture in which the earth is a medium-sized planet orbiting around an average star in the outer suburbs of an ordinary spiral galaxy, which is itself only one of about a million million galaxies in the observable universe.”
― Stephen Hawking, quote from A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes

“I’m categorizing them according to attraction type,” said Marjory. “Outdoor activities, historical sites, shopping opportunities—subcategorized, of course, into fashion, antiques, and souvenirs.” “Of course,” said Andrew. “And, over here, you’ll find dining options.” Andrew smiled. “Isn’t informational organization awesome?” “Yes,” said Marjory. “It’s certainly more intellectually stimulating than video games.”
― Chris Grabenstein, quote from Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

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