T. Singer Quotes

“Tidene forandrer seg, alt forandrer seg, bare ikke Notodden, for den er Norsk Hydros misforståelse.

Norsk Hydro har flyttet sin hovedproduksjon til Herøya, sitt hovedkontor til Oslo, er store ute i verden, og produserer gass på Karmøy og kraft i Glomfjord, og så å si intet på Rjukan, men Rjukan er ingen misforståelse, den er en del av den verden som forandrer seg.

Rjukan har hatt sin storhetstid, Notodden kun sin store misforståelse.

Men vi forlater aldri Notodden, vi tviholder på vår misforståelse. Vi nedlegger alt her, men ikke uten å sette inn noe i stedet. Det er min oppgave.

Opp gjennom årene har vi hatt vår største misforståelse i tankene, og aldri forlatt den.”
― Dag Solstad, T. Singer

“He wanted his birthday to disappear, dissolve in water and sink to the bottom. A day like all the others. That's how he felt about it, wanting to maneuver that day into silence, and outside of time, time lived and gone for good, so that eventually not even a scratch on his skin would remind him of the day when it occurred, or of that time; that's what gave Singer a great sense of satisfaction. Then he felt that he was once again in sync with himself and could breathe a sigh of relief while, without thinking about it, he endured yet another day in his life without noting that forty-seven years had now passed since his birth. Such is Singer's life, it proceeded without any need to mark its passage, thought Singer, moving with his own unique rhythm, yet not totally without self-awareness, in spite of everything. To be yanked out of the automechanism of life in order to celebrate his birthday as a boisterous reminder was something that broke with what Singer regarded as his essential nature.”
― Dag Solstad, T. Singer

“By the way, in every novel there is a big black hole, which is universal in its blackness, and now this novel has reached that point. Surrounded by spirited young ladies, with all their sweetness, we find ourselves together with Singer in a novel that is like a big black hole. Why is Singer the main character in this novel? And not only the main character but the one around whom everything revolves? Fortunately, the other characters in this novel are completely unaffected by the fact that they are characters, or ideas, that exist only in that they revolve around this main character. I wish I could have said something that Singer wouldn't be able to ponder. There's something I would have said about precisely this point, but I have no words for it. My language ceases when Singer's pondering ceases. Yet that does not make us identical.”
― Dag Solstad, T. Singer

“He couldn't manage to tear himself loose in order to "Look at her!" as she wanted. At the library he checked in books and checked out others as he stamped them. He cataloged new books, inspected old ones, and took a keen interest in the new computer system, in which everything was to be entered, and which heralded a new era and completely new routines. But he could not "Look at her!" Why not? Because he regarded it as an impossible demand and assumed she knew this. When she shouted like that, she was shouting for an obligatory action on his part, and when he therefore turned toward her, she knew that she was seeing a Singer who was looking at her in an obligatory way and that is noninvasive amiability was a plea to be understood in a different manner. But if she didn't want to understand and be understood, in this different manner, there was little he could do, and that too she knew, or so he assumed, in a glass like way, which combined with other glass-like ways of relating to life, in this distant attitude of his, which was his way of living and withstanding that which he, perhaps all alone in the world, experienced as unbearable.”
― Dag Solstad, T. Singer