HHhH Quotes

“The dead are dead, and it makes no difference to them whether I pay homage to their deeds. But for us, the living, it does mean something. Memory is of no use to the remembered, only to those who remember. We build ourselves with memory and console ourselves with memory.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“How many forgotten heroes sleep in history's great cemetery?”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Memory is of no use to the remembered, only to those who remember. We build ourselves with memory and console ourselves with memory.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“I’m fighting a losing battle. I can’t tell this story the way it should be told. This whole hotchpotch of characters, events, dates, and the infinite branching of cause and effect - and these people, these real people who actually existed. I’m barely able to mention a tiny fragment of their lives, their actions, their thoughts. I keep banging my head against the wall of history. And I look up and see, growing all over it - ever higher and denser, like a creeping ivy - the unmappable pattern of causality ... How many forgotten heroes sleep in history's great cemetery?”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“This scene is not really useful, and on top of that I practically made it up. I don't think I'm going to keep it.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“…the thread of knowledge, once you pull at it, continues unraveling on its own.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Sometimes, after all, there is a bit of justice in this mean, cruel world.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“No, it's not invented! What would be the point of 'inventing' Nazism?”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Je me souviens d'une interminable digression d'au moins quatre-vingts pages, dans Notre-Dame de Paris, sur le fonctionnement des institutions judiciaires au Moyen Age. J'avais trouvé ça très fort. Mais j'avais sauté le passage.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“«Los que han muerto, han muerto, y a ellos les es indiferente que se les rinda algún homenaje. Si hay alguien para quien eso tiene algún significado, es para nosotros, para los vivo. La memoria carece de utilidad para aquellos a quienes honra, pero sirve de mucho a quien se sirve de ella. Con ella me construyo, y con ella me consuelo»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“You had to choose between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor. You will have war.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“A ce degré de bêtise politique, la trahison devient presque une œuvre d'art.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“That scene, like the one before it, is perfectly believable and totally made up”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Il me fallut attendre deux ou trois ans pour réellement prendre conscience de ce que j’avais toujours soupçonné : que cette histoire dépassait en romanesque et en intensité les plus improbables fictions.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Damit etwas ins allgemeine Gedächtnis übergeht, muss es zunächst in Literatur verwandelt werden.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“So, to cut a long story short, they jumped.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Hitler vildi sýna hvað það kostaði að ögra Þriðja ríkinu og Lidice fór með hlutverk hins friðþægjandi fórnarlambs. En með þessum viðbrögðum hafði hann gert mjög alvarleg mistök. Hitler og aðrir í yfirstjórn nasista höfðu fyrir löngu misst alla tilfinningu fyrir meðalhófi og gerðu sér því enga grein fyrir þeirri heimsathygli sem eyðileggingin í Lidice myndi fá.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Eftir margra mánaða undirbúning stendur hún á sér, Sten-vélbyssan snuðar, þessi enski skítahólkur. Heydrich er þarna, rétt fyrir framan hann og byssan hans Gabčíks stendur á sér. Hann hamast á gikknum en í stað þess að frussa út úr sér kúlunum steinþegir Sten-byssan. Fingur Gabčíks kreppast utan um tilgangslausan smábút úr málmi.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Trúði hann á þetta allt saman? Ég held að svo hafi verið. Við trúum alltaf auðveldlega á allt sem gerir okkur hreykin, allt sem kemur sér vel fyrir okkur. Mér verður hugsað til setningar sem Paul Newman sagði: „Ef ég væri ekki bláeygur, þá hefði ferill minn ekki verið jafn glæstur.“ Ég velti því fyrir mér hvort Heydrich hafi hugsað það sama.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“«Pasan los meses, se convierten en años, durante los cuales esa historia no deja de crecer en mí. Y mientras transcurre mi vida, hecha como la de todos a base de alegrías, de dramas, de decepciones y de esperanzas personales, los anaqueles de mi apartamento se cubren de libros sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“«Dejando aparte toda ficción más o menos ingeniosa, dudo mucho que el destino de una nación, y más aún el del mundo entero, dependa nunca de un solo hombre»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“«Cuántos héroes olvidados duermen en el gran cementerio de la Historia»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“«Para que cualquier cosa pueda penetrar en la memoria, es preciso antes transformarla el literatura. No está bien, pero es así»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“He’s a skillful cheat. A trickster. Well … a novelist, basically.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Ce discours m’inspire trois remarques : 1. En Tchéquie comme ailleurs, l’honneur de l’Education nationale n’est jamais aussi mal défendu que par son ministre. Antinazi virulent à l’origine, Emanuel Moravec est devenu après Munich le collabo le plus actif du gouvernement tchèque nommé par Heydrich, et l’interlocuteur privilégié des Allemands, bien davantage qu’Emil Hácha, le vieux président gâteux. Les livres d’histoire locale ont pris l’habitude de le désigner sous le terme de « Quisling tchèque », du nom de ce fameux collaborateur norvégien, Vidkun Quisling, dont le patronyme, par antonomase, signifie désormais « collabo » dans la majorité des langues européennes. 2. L’honneur de l’Education nationale est bel et bien défendu par les profs qui, quoi qu’on puisse en penser par ailleurs, ont vocation à être des éléments subversifs, et méritent qu’on leur rende hommage pour cela. 3. Le sport, c’est quand même une belle saloperie fasciste.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Gabcik - tht's his name - really did exist”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Een jonge vrouw die op Natacha lijkt staat op de brug, haar handen op de verschansing, een opgetrokken been dat met de zoom van haar jurk speelt, en ik, misschien ben ik daar ook wel.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Les Bienveillantes, c'est « Houellebecq chez les nazis », tous simplement.”
― Binet Laurent, HHhH

“Єдина по-справжньому невблаганний річ — це Історія. Її можна читати і перечитувати як завгодно, але її не можна переписати.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

“Однак, тим часом як депортації тривають, Терезінське ґетто править за Propagandalager, тобто за ґетто-вітрину для іноземних спостерігачів. Його мешканці мали справляти приємне враження під час відвідин представників Міжнародного комітету Червоного Хреста.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH