Rituals Quotes

“Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“He read a lot, but what he read, and not just that but everything he saw, films and paintings, he translated into feeling. And this feeling, which could not immediately be expressed in words, not yet and maybe never, that formless mass of sentiments, impressions, observations — that was his way of thinking. You could circle around it with words, but there always remained far more that was not expressed than was. And later, too, a certain resentment would take possession of him, toward those people who demanded precise answers, or pretended to be able to give them. It was, on the contrary, the very mystery of everything that was so attractive. You should not want to impose too much order on it. If you did, something would be lost irrevocably. That mysteries can become more mysterious if you think about them with precision and method, he did not yet know. He felt at home in his sentimental chaos. To chart it you had to be an adult, but then you were at once labelled, finished, and in effect already a little dead.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“He thought that, unlike most people, he had simply refused to let himself be brainwashed by newspapers, television, eschatologies, and philosophies into believing that "in spite of everything" this was an acceptable world simply because it existed. It would never become acceptable. Beloved maybe, acceptable never.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Man is a sad mammal that combs its hair.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Wij hebben het nu over jou. Vergeet niet, ik ben notaris geweest. Ik maak die dingen altijd af. Wat wil jij worden?'
'Ik weet het niet.'
Hij begreep dat dat geen goed antwoord was, maar het was het enige, zelfs als iemand graag altijd alles afmaakte. Hij had geen flauw idee. Eigenlijk wist hij zeker dat hij nooit iets wou, maar ook nooit iets zóú worden. De wereld was al boordevol met mensen die iets waren, en de meesten waren er duidelijk niet gelukkig mee.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“When Sartre says man has been thrown into the world, he is alone, there is no God, we are responsible for what we are, what we do, I say yes!"
The affirmative echoed around the woods. The dog pricked up his ears. This man has no one to talk to, thought Inni.
"But when he then asks me to be responsible for the world as well, for others, I say no! No. Why should I be? 'When man chooses himself, he chooses all men.' Why? I have not asked for anything. I have nothing to do with the vermin I see around me. I live out my time because I have to, that is all.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Wij zijn begonnen, wij zullen eindigen, en daartussen bestaan we, het heelal net zo goed als een geranium.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“What the East has given me is the thought that this I of mine is not so unique. Nothing much will be lost when it disappears. It isn't important. I am a hindrance to the world, and the world is a hindrance to me. There will only be harmony if I get rid of both at once. What dies in that case is a bundle of circumstances that bore my name, plus the limited and moreover constantly changing knowledge that these circumstances had about themselves. It doesn't matter to me. I have learnt not to be afraid. That in itself is quite a lot, and I am not capable of anything more. In a Zen monastery I would probably get the stick mercilessly, because it's all no good, but it satisfies me. What I have achieved is negative. I am no longer afraid, and I can quietly dissolve myself the way you dissolve a bottle of poison in an ocean. The ocean won't feel any ill effect, and the poison has been freed from a great burden; it does not have to be poison any more."
"And is that the only solution?"
"What I lack is love.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Suicide is when you have been all around the world with your fear and your aggression and you end by yourself again.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“«Lei, a quanto ho capito, è professore di teologia», continuò Taads, «e questa è dunque una conversazione puerile. Lei è pieno fino al collo di dogmatica, di scolastica, conosce le prove dell'esistenza di Dio e le loro confutazioni. Avete costruito tutto un sistema sul crudele simbolo della croce, la vostra religione vive ancora di quella seduta sadomasochistica che, probabilmente, ha davvero avuto luogo, un giorno. L'organizzazione militaristica dell'Impero romano ha dato modo di diffondersi a questo singolare fanatismo, con il suo strano miscuglio di idolatria pagana e di buone intenzioni; l'espansionismo dell'Occidente e il colonialismo hanno assicurato la sua ulteriore propagazione e la Chiesa, che lei chiama madre, ha più frequentemente agito da assassina, spesso da boia, sempre da tiranna.» «E lei ha una risposta migliore?»
«Io non ho nessuna risposta.»”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Αν είχε κάποια φιλοδοξία δεν θα δίσταζε να χαρακτηρίσει τον εαυτό του αποτυχημένο, αλλά φιλοδοξίες δεν είχε. Τη ζωή τη θεωρούσε σαν μια αλλόκοτη λέσχη της οποίας είχε γίνει μέλος κατά τύχη και από την οποία θα μπορούσαν να τον αποβάλλουν χωρίς να τον ενημερώσουν για τους λόγους. Έτσι κι αλλιώς είχε ήδη αποφασίσει να παραιτηθεί από μόνος του αν οι συγκεντρώσεις παραγίνονταν βαρετές.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“I could have forced myself to adapt," said Taads. "In this world the individual self is of such importance that it is allowed to become absorbed in itself and to grub around in its trivial personal history for years on end with the help of a psychiatrist, so as to be able to cope. But I don't think that is important enough. And then suicide is no longer a disgrace. If I had done it earlier, I would have done it in hatred, but that is no longer the case."
"Hatred?"
"I used to hate the world. People, smells, dogs, feet, telephones, newspapers, voices — everything filled me with the greatest disgust. I have always been afraid I might murder somebody. Suicide is when you have been all around the world with your fear and your aggression and you end up by yourself again."
"It remains aggression."
"Not necessarily."
"What are you waiting for then?"
"For the right moment. The time has not yet come." He said it amiably, as if he were talking to a child.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals

“Can you imagine how incredibly quiet it was everywhere, when the gentlemen from this world" — he made a vague circular gesture towards the battalions of meditating Asians behind him — "were hatching and proclaiming their ideas? Anyone who now tries to follow these ideas in order to find the road back to what they were talking about, is faced with obstacles that would have driven an entire tribe of oriental ascetics into the ravine. The world from which they felt it so necessary to retreat would have seemed idyllic to us. We live in a vision of hell, and we have actually got used to it." He looked at his statues and continued, "We have become different people. We still look the same, but we have nothing in common with them any more. We are differently programmed. Anyone who now wants to become like them must acquire a big dose of madness first; otherwise he will no longer be able to bear the life of our world. We are not designed for their kind of life.”
― Cees Nooteboom, Rituals