Danilo Kiš
Danilo Kiš was a Yugoslav novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, screenwriter, translator, and literary editor who worked in Serbian, Hungarian, French, and Russian.
Born on February 22, 1935, in Subotica, Kiš held citizenship first of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was educated at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology. His career eventually took him to Paris, where he died on October 15, 1989, in the city's tenth arrondissement.
Over the course of his working life, Kiš received recognition from several awarding bodies. He was honored with the NIN Prize and the Andrić Prize, two distinctions associated with literary achievement in Yugoslavia, as well as the Preis der SWR-Bestenliste. France honored him with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. His activity as a translator formed a significant strand of his professional life alongside his original writing in multiple languages.
His output spans novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and screenplays, reflecting the breadth of his engagement with literary form. Among the works most closely associated with his name are the novel Hourglass, the short story collection A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, and The Encyclopedia of the Dead. These titles, produced across different phases of his career, recur consistently in discussions of his writing. The range of genres in which he worked — from fiction to essay to screenplay — underscores the variety of forms he practiced across his lifetime.
Quotes by Danilo Kiš
Ulazimo u voz sa svojim smešnim prtljagom, vučemo sa sobom čergu svoga lutalaštva, žalosnu priču mog detinjstva.
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.
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.
I dislike people who get out of things unscraped. No scars, no scratches. Agnosceo veteris vestigia flamme. Refined through a scar.
![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.](https://lakl0ama8n6qbptj.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/quotes/quote-576855.png)
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.
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
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
A sve što nadživi smrt jeste jedna mala ništavna pobeda nad večnošću ništavila - dokaz ljudske veličine i Jahvine milosti. Non omnis moriar.