In the Heart of the Country Quotes

“If only we could eat our sunsets, I say, we would all be full.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Words are coin. Words alienate. Language is no medium for desire. Desire is rapture, not exchange. It is only by alienating the desired that language masters it. The frenzy of desire in the medium of words yields the mania of the catalogue. I struggle with the proverbs of hell.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“The sun is setting, the sky is a tumult of oranges, reds and violets.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Deprived of human intercourse, I inevitably overvalue the imagination and expect it to make the mundane glow with an aura of self-transcendence.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Von allen Abenteuern ist Selbstmord das literarischste, mehr noch als Mord.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Charakter ist Schicksal. Historie ist Gott.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Es ist nicht die Sprache, die den Menschen zum Menschen macht, sondern die Sprache der anderen.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Do you remember Vlek, who was such a good sheepdog that she and Jakob alone could drive a whole flock past you at the counting-post? Do you remember how Vlek grew old and sickly and could not hold down her food, and how there was no one to shoot her but you, and how you went for a walk afterwards because you did not want anyone to see you cry?”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Erklären heißt verzeihen, erklärt zu werden heißt Verzeihung erlangen [...]”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Worte entfremden. Sprache ist kein Medium für Begehren. Begehren ist Hingerissensein, nicht Austausch. Nur dadurch, dass die Sprache das Begehrte entfremdet, beherrscht sie es.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Vergnügen ist Mangelware, aber an Schmerz ist heute überall ranzukommen.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Asymmetrie [macht] Menschen unglücklich.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Auf den Stachel des Begehrens haben wir nur eine Antwort: fangen, einschließen, festhalten.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“Alle äußeren Feinde und Widerstände ermangelnd, eingesperrt in unterdrückende Enge und Ordnung, hat der Mensch schließlich keine andere Wahl, als sich selbst zu einem Abenteuer zu machen.”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“ya que la anatomía es el destino: un vacío, o una concha, una película sobre un vacío que ansía verse colmado en un mundo en el que nada se colma.”
― J.M. Coetzee, En medio de ninguna parte

“¿hasta qué punto es real nuestra posesión? Las flores se convierten en polvo, Hendrik desengancha y se va, la tierra nada sabe de cercas, las piedras seguirán en su sitio cuando yo no sea más que polvo, la propia comida que devoro solamente pasa a través de mí.”
― J.M. Coetzee, En medio de ninguna parte

“Hand in hand they stroke her womb, watching for it to flicker and blossom.

p. 3”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“What solace are lapidary paradoxes for the loves of the body?”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country

“so serene, so fun of common purpose; I
should have been a man, I·would. not have grown up so· sour, I
would have spent my days in the sun doing whatever it. is that
men do, digging holes, building fence.s, counting sheep. ·What
is there for me in the. kitchen?”
― J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country