11 Quotes by Danilo Kiš

... pois uma grande quantidade de livros nunca é perigosa, enquanto um só livro sim, é perigoso; disse-lhes que não os rasgassem porque a leitura de uma grande quantidade de livros conduz à sabedoria, e a leitura de um único à ignorância armada de loucura e ódio.

A sve što nadživi smrt jeste jedna mala ništavna pobeda nad večnošću ništavila - dokaz ljudske veličine i Jahvine milosti. Non omnis moriar.

The past was a minefield about which few maps seemed to agree. And why should that surprise me? It's a big place.p. 30

History is written by the victors. Legends are woven by the people. Writers fantasize. Only death is certain."To Die for One's Country is Glorious," p. 131

I would have liked to catch hold of sleep at least once, just as I had been resolved to catch hold of death one day, to catch hold of the wings of the angel of sleep when it came for me, to grab it with two fingers like a butterfly after sneaking up on it from behind. [...] My sleep game was practice for the grand struggle with death.

I dislike people who get out of things unscraped. No scars, no scratches. Agnosceo veteris vestigia flamme. Refined through a scar.

The local Red Cross chapter volunteered to publish his book. It came out in a deluxe, gold-embossed, Japanese-paper edition to remind the reader of human artistry, which can be a refuge from evil and a source of new, platonic stirrings. One copy was reserved for His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II. (The Tsar fairly devoured mystical works, believing that hell could be avoided by a combination of education and deceit.)"The Book of Kings and Fools," p. 136.

But my father had already removed his hand from his pocket, and everyone could see the scrap of newspaper into which he proceeded to blow his nose. Any kind of excitement provoked powerful disturbances in his metabolism and ample secretions of fluids. If he got out of that scramble alive, the first thing he would do would be to go behind a bush and urinate, breaking wind vigorously, I was sure of that.

Ulazimo u voz sa svojim smešnim prtljagom, vučemo sa sobom čergu svoga lutalaštva, žalosnu priču mog detinjstva.