Permafrost Quotes

“Healthy things kill you much more slowly. They begin by convincing you of their love and making you bow to their withering intensity.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“I’d chosen Brussels because a city whose symbol is a little boy pissing was a city I knew I would like.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“The power of fear is in the sum of every small dream reduced to dust.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“But I'm alone: I am fifty-two kilos of loneliness and lamentation, a real treasure.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“Do you remember that movie we saw when we were little?” I begin. “The Great Escape—we watched it with Dad at least seven or eight times. It was about these American pilots in a German POW camp who dig this long, long tunnel that runs the length of the compound. But, on the night of the escape, when they reach the end of the tunnel, they realize they’re six meters short of the forest. Their calculations had been off by six meters! They’ve got no choice but to risk their necks and make a run for it, in plain view of the guards. Do you remember?” “No,” she says indifferently.
“Whatever. What I’m trying to say is: Being with a woman is like sticking your head out of the tunnel and discovering that you’ve actually dug through those last few meters.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“I've realised that I know myself by heart - I know myself to the point of recognising people who don't exist and yet complement me. I know myself like a path that leads home, like a doorless corridor, like endless guardrails. I know myself like a decade-long involuntary commitment. To end and be done with it. I sense a change in my body-it is unsexed, majestic and magnificently afflicted, like a tower riddled with sorrow. And I can feel the whole crush of humanity inside me, concentrated in a place that is absolutely personal.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“Medicación, medicación y medicación. Un suicida con éxito es hoy un héroe. El mundo está lleno de desaprensivos titulados en primeros auxilios, se hallan por doquier, discretos y grises como palomas, agresivos como madres. Desafían la muerte ajena con masajes cardíacos y precisas maniobras de Heimlich.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“Al cap d’un temps acabes descobrint que el límit es deixa viure, vertical com mai, a frec del no-res, i que no només és possible habitar-hi sinó que també s’hi pot créixer de maneres diferents. Si del que es tracta és de sobreviure, la resistència pot ser que sigui l’única forma de viure intensament. És ara, en aquest límit, que em sento viva, viva com mai.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“Pollock esquitxava les teles de pintura, empès per l'espontaneïtat d'aquell moment. L'obra d'art no era només un resultat final, sinó art en el temps, art en temps real, en acció. Impulsiu i senzill com el dibuix d'un nen, sí, però hi subjau una preocupació refinada, aquest interès pel procés, aquesta magnitud de vida concentrada en el procés. ¿Ho entens?” “Una mica.” “D'acord. Doncs ara ja saps una mica com és follar amb una dona.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“I weep like sugar from fruit left too long on a branch. I melt. I give in. I turn little by little into a sack of bones.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“This is an action painting,” I begin. “Action painting is the product of impatience.” She pulls a face like a cricket. “Around the mid twentieth century, there was a period when artists were no longer being challenged. For centuries, they’d struggled with a series of problems: motif, depth, form, color, realism, fidelity, light… everything! In other words, they’d run out of lines of inquiry. And then Pollock rocked up with his huge, unplanned canvases stretched out on the floor, and wham!” “Wham?” “Look at this.” I show her Number 3, flip pages, Number 5, flip pages, Number 34, a superb piece with that horrific red-thinking head and its two yellow hemispheres. “Look,” I tell her. “Clear, simple manipulation of raw material! Pure experimentation! Pollock splattered canvases driven by the spontaneity of the moment. A work of art isn’t only the end result—it’s art in time, art in real time, in action, as simple and impulsive as a drawing by a child. But there’s a sophisticated concern below the surface, an interest in process—life’s immensity concentrated in that process. Do you get what I’m saying?” “Sort of.” “All right. So now you sort of know what it’s like to fuck a woman.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“Imminence is just the carrot dangled by the future to keep us present.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“After a while, you'll find that the edge gives you room to live, vertical as ever, brushing up against the void. Not only can you live on it, but there are even different ways of growing there. If surviving is what it's all about, maybe resistance is the only way to live intensely. Now, on this edge, I feel alive, more alive than ever.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permafrost

“«¿Recuerdas aquella película de cuando éramos pequeñas? —empiezo—. Se titulaba La gran evasión. La vimos con papá al menos siete u ocho veces. Iba de unos aviadores americanos reclusos en un campo de prisioneros de la Alemania nazi. Conseguían excavar un túnel larguísimo que atravesaba todo el recinto del campo. Pero la noche de la evasión, cuando salían del túnel, se percataban de que les quedaban seis metros para llegar al bosque. ¡Habían errado en los cálculos seis metros! Luego no tenían más remedio que jugarse la vida recorriendo esa distancia expuestos a la mirada de los guardias. ¿Te acuerdas?». «No», suelta con indiferencia.
«No importa. Lo que quería decir es que estar con una mujer es como sacar la cabeza al exterior y descubrir que de verdad has excavado esos seis metros que quedaban».”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel

“Sóc jo, l'estranya que tothom reco-
neix, aquesta que sembla de mentida sota la seva capa d'herba curta i consistent. Tinc un bon recobriment, impermeable com el dels bucs, però no és mentida, no: la duresa del glaç preserva un món habitable, només que s'ha adormit.”
― Eva Baltasar, Permagel