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

“Once born into childlike faith, brimming with belief, typical people begin to lose their faith. Society mocks them. Their friends smirk. They come to change the world, but over time the world changes them. Soon they forget who they were; they forget the faith they once had. Then one day someone tells them the truth, but they don’t want to go back, because they’re comfortable in their new skin. Being a stranger in this world is never easy.”
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― Louise Rennison, quote from On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

“It's my diary", she'd explained. "Every mark I've had drawn on my skin connects me to where and who I've been- so I never forget who I am and how I got here."There was humour in the smile she offered him. "And you know what the real beauty of it is?"
Hank had shaken his head.
"Nobody can take it away.”
― Charles de Lint, quote from Someplace to Be Flying

“In the cab to the station, he told me that when he was growing up he'd see a look of pleasure cross his mother's face and ask what she was thinking: she'd say, I was just thinking of your father. "That's how I want us to be," Archie said.
I smiled.
"What?"
I said, "I was just thinking of your father.”
― Melissa Bank, quote from The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

“Then think of this as an adventure." I kissed hi cheek. "So which flower should I be?"
He curled me close to his chest, nuzzling his face into my hair. "Mmmm, can't you be all of them? My own bouquet of beauty? Like daisies opening their friendly petals." He brushed his fingertips over my eyelids. "Or marigolds that burn like the summer sun." He rubbed his hands over my back. "Or orchids-rare and exotic." He traced a finger across my collarbone down to rest lightly on the locket I wore all the time. "Roses for passion." He kissed me.”
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