A Silent Language Quotes

“One thing is certain, I have never written to express myself, as they say, but rather to get away from myself.”
― Jon Fosse, A Silent Language: The Nobel Lecture

“What’s most important in life cannot be said, only written – to give a slight twist to the well-known remark by Jacques Derrida.

And so, in my fiction and poetry, I tried to put silent speech into words.

But when I wrote plays, I could use silent speech – I could use silence – in a completely different way. All I had to do was write ‘pause’ and the silent speech was right there. This word ‘pause’ is without a doubt the most important word in my plays, and the one I use the most often: ‘long pause’, ‘short pause’, or just ‘pause’.

There can be so much in these pauses ­– or so little. The fact that something cannot be said, the fact that something refuses to be said, or the fact that something is best said by not saying anything.

But what I am quite sure speaks through these pauses the most is: silence.”
― Jon Fosse, A Silent Language: The Nobel Lecture

“The most important thing in life cannot be said, only written, to twist a famous saying by Jacques Derrida”
― Jon Fosse, A Silent Language: The Nobel Lecture