1,075 Quotes by Milan Kundera

The scene taking place illustrates an immemorial error of men: having appropriated the role of seducers, they never even consider any women but the ones they might desire; the idea doesn't occur to them that a woman who is ugly or old, or who simply stands outside their own erotic imaginings, might want to possess them.

People thought up the idea that animals don't have the same capability of suffering as humans, because otherwise they couldn't bear the knowledge that they are surrounded by a world of nature that is horror, and nothing but horror.

Dua orang yang saling cinta, sendirian, terpisahkan dari dunia, itu indah sekali. Tapi dengan apa mereka akan mengumpani percakapan intim mereka? Seberapa memuakkannya pun dunia, itu tetap mereka butuhkan supaya bisa ngobrol berduaan.

Our historical experience teaches us that men imitate one another, that their attitudes are statistically calculable, their opinions manipulable, and that man is therefore less an individual (a subject) than an element in a mass.

Only cactuses had perennial appeal. And cactuses were of no interest to her.

I believe that in matters of the heart there is no such thing as compromise. Love means that you give each other everything.

A novel examines not reality but existence. And existence is not what has occurred, existence is the realm of human possibilities, everything that man can become, everything he's capable of. Novelists draw up the map of existence by discovering this or that human possibilit. But again, to exist mean: 'being-in-the-world.' Thus both the character and his world must be understood as possibilities.

What is a novel if not a trap for catching a hero?

Ležal je poleg Kamile, vedel je, da jo neizmerno ljubi, toda v mislih ni bil prisoten. Božal jo je po licu, kot da bi jo božal iz neizmerne daljave, iz nekaj sto kilometrov velike razdalje.