1,075 Quotes by Milan Kundera

Nudity is the uniform of the other side... nudity is a shroud.

Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten.

Forgive me," he went on. "For a long time I have had the peculiar habit of not arriving but appearing.

What is unique about the "I" hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person. All we are able to imagine is what makes everyone like everyone else, what people have in common. The individual "I" is what differs from the common stock, that is, what cannot be guessed at or calculated, what must be unveiled, uncovered, conquered.

nothing yet. I've been waiting." "for what?" she made no response. she could not tell him that she had been waiting for him.

In order to make the novel into a polyhistorical illumination of existence, you need to master the technique of ellipsis, the art of condensation. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of endless length.

Remembering now all those farewells (fake farewells, worked-up farewells), Irena thinks: a person who messes up her goodbyes shouldn’t expect much from her re-unions.

Eroticism is like a dance: one always leads the other.

The difference between the university graduate and the autodidact lies not so much in the extent of knowledge as in the extent of vitality and self-confidence.