The Master of Petersburg Quotes

“In the act of writing he experiences, today, an exceptional sensual pleasure -- in the feel of the pen, snug in the crook of his thumb, but even more in the feel of his hand being tugged back lightly from its course across the page by the strict, unvarying shape of the letters, the discipline of the alphabet.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“For that is surely what a woman wants: to be courted, wooed, persuaded, won! Even when she surrenders, she wants to give herself up not frankly but in a delicious haze of confusion, resisting yet unresisting. Falling, but never an irrevocable falling. No: to fall and then come back from the fall new, remade, virginal, ready to be wooed again and to fall again. A playing with death, a play of resurrection.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“When death cuts all other links, there remains the name. Baptism: the union of a soul with a name, the name it will carry into eternity.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“Ese es el gran secreto de las mujeres, eso es lo que les da ventaja sobre los hombres como nosotros. Saben cuándo ceder, cuándo echarse a llorar. Nosotros, tú y yo, no lo sabemos. Aguantamos, embotellamos la pena dentro de nosotros, la encerramos y cal y canto, hasta que se convierte en el mismísimo demonio. Y entonces nos da por cometer alguna estupidez, sólo con tal de librarnos de la pena, aunque no sea más que un par de horas. Sí, cometemos alguna estupidez que luego habremos de lamentar durante toda la vida. Las mujeres no son así, porque conocen el secreto de las lágrimas.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“What really happened to Pavel?' he says. 'Do you know?'
'I think... I think he gave himself up.'
'Gave himself up for what?'
'For the future. So that he could be one of the martyrs.'
'Martyrs? What is a martyr?'
She hesitates. 'Someone who gives himself up. For the future.'
'Was that Finnish girl a martyr too?'
She nods.
He wonders whether Pavel had grown used to speaking in formulas too, by the end.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“What really happened to Pavel?' he says. 'Do you know?'
'I think... I think he gave himself up.'
'Gave himself up for what?'
'For the future. So that he could be one of the martyrs.'
'Martyrs? What is a martyr?'
She hesitates. 'Someone who gives himself up. For the future.'
'Was that Finnish girl a martyr too?'
She nods.
He wonders whether Pavel bad grown used to speaking in formulas too, by the end.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“Because if you do not kill you are not taken seriously. It is the only proof of seriousness that counts.”
― J. M. Coetzee, [The Master of Petersburg] (By: J. M. Coetzee) [published: December, 1998]

“Let me tell you then: reading is being the arm and being the axe and being the skull; reading is giving yourself up, not holding yourself at a distance and jeering.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“Stiff shoulders humped over the writing-table, and the ache of a heart slow to move. A tortoise heart.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg

“He sits with the pen in his hand, holding himself back from a descent into representations that have no place in the world, on the point of toppling, enclosed within a moment in which all creations lies open at his feet, the moment before he loosens his grip and begins to fall.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg