Trilogia della città di K. Quotes

“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 Kristof, 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 Kristof, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

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

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

“Don’t be sentimental. Everything dies”
― Ágota Kristóf, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“I go to bed and before falling asleep I talk to Lucas in my head the way I have for many years. What I tell him is just about what I usually do. I tell him that if he's dead he's lucky and I'd very much like to be in his place. I tell him that he got the better deal, that it is I who is pulling the greater weight. I tell him that life is totally useless, that it's nonsense, an aberration, infinite suffering, the invention of a non-God whose evil surpasses understanding.”
― Ágota Kristóf, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“– Where are they now?
– The dead are nowhere and everywhere”
― Ágota Kristóf, 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, 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, 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, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Estoy convencido, Lucas, de que todo ser humano ha nacido para escribir un libro, solo para eso. Un libro genial o un libro mediocre, da igual, pero el que no escriba nada es un ser malogrado, que ha pasado por la tierra sin dejar ninguna huella.”
― Ágota Kristóf, Claus y Lucas

“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, 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, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

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

“Physical wounds don’t matter when I receive them. But if I had to inflict them on someone else, that would wound me in a way I couldn’t bear”
― Ágota Kristóf, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Gazetede yazdıklarımız gerçeklerle tümüyle çelişiyor. Her gün yüzlerce kez "Biz özgürüz" cümlesini basıyoruz, ama sokaklarda yabancı bir ordunun askerleri dolaşıyor, herkes çok sayıda siyasi tutuklu bulunduğunu biliyor, yurt dışına seyahatler yasak, Ülke içinde bile bazı şehirlere gidemiyoruz.(...)
Günde yüz kez "Bolluk ve mutluluk içinde yüzüyoruz" cümlesini basıyoruz; önceleri bu başkaları için geçerli, "Şey" yüzünden Anne ile ben mutsuz ve acınacak durumdayız, diye düşünüyordum, ama Gaspar bizim istisna olmadığımızı, karısı ve üç çocuğuyla kendisinin de hiç olmadığı kadar sefil bir yaşam sürdüğünü söylüyor.
Sabahları erken saatte işten çıktığım zaman, işlerine giden insanlara rastlıyorum, hiçbir yerde mutluluk göremiyorum, bolluk da hak getire. Gaspar'a neden bu kadar yalan bastığımızı sorduğumda, "Sakın soru sorma" diyor. "İşini yap, başka şeyle uğraşma.”
― Ágota Kristóf, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

“Para decidir si algo está 'bien' o 'mal', tenemos una regla muy sencilla: la redacción debe ser verdadera. Debemos escribir lo que vemos, lo que oímos, lo que hacemos.”
― Ágota Kristóf, 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, 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, The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels