61 Quotes by Herman Koch

I was remarkably calm. Calm and fatigued. There would be no violence. It was like a storm coming up. The café chairs are carried inside, the awnings are rolled up, but nothing happens. The storm passes over. And, at the same time, that’s too bad. After all, we would all rather see the roofs ripped from the houses, the trees uprooted and tossed through the air.

Put a hundred writers together for a party and you get something very different--in any case, not a party.

Something in me whispered that I needed to stop thinking, that I should above all not go too farwith thinking. But that never worked; I always thought things through to the end, to their mostextreme consequence.

Non bisogna sempre sapere tutto l’uno dell’altro. I segreti non ostacolano la felicità

The postcard came this morning. A postcard ... there's something touching about that, something from days gone by. The same days gone by to which you belong, where your roots lie, you might say.

When the conversation turns too quickly to films,I see it as a sign of weakness.

Alleen mensen die zichzelf veel te belangrijk vinden denken dat ze overal gemist zullen worden.

A mediocre writer serves a life sentence. He has to go on. It's too late to change professions. He has to go on till the bitter end. Until death comes to get him. Only death can save him from his mediocrity.His writing is "not without merit," that's what we say about the mediocre writer. For him, that's the pinnacle of achievement, to produce books that are not without merit. You really do have to be mediocre to go on living once you've realized that.

Aber Film hin oder her, man sollte nie mit Fotos aus einem Film für einen Roman werben. Damit schränkt man die Fantasie des Lesers ein. Man zwingt ihn die Gesichter der Filmschauspieler vor sich zu sehen. Für den, der erst den Film gesehen hat und dann das Buch lesen möchte, macht das vielleicht nicht viel aus. Aber der, der erst das Buch gelesen hat, gerät in ein Dilemma.