Quotes from JM Coetzee

Moer and more he is convinced that English is an unfit medium for the truth in South Africa.

The boy is special, Aunt Annie told his mother, and his mother in turn told him. But what kind of special? No one ever says.

The question is not, are we sorry? The question is, what lesson have we learned? The question is what are we going to do now that we are sorry?

People don't divide themselves on important and unimportant... I have my own life, important to me equally as is yours to you, and in my life I the one who decides.

we also first beheld Unveiled the summit of Mont Blanc, and grieved To have a soulless image on the eye That had usurped upon a living thought That never more could be.

Those into whose lives you are born do not pass away.

One must love what is nearest, one must love what is to hand, as a dog loves.

I tell myself I talk to Friday to educate him out of darkness and silence. But is that the truth? There are times when benevolence deserts me and I use the words only as the shortest way to subject him to my will. At such times I understand why Cruso preferred not to disturb his muteness. I understand, that is to say, why a man will choose to be a slaveowner. Do you think less of me for this confession?

All creatures come into the world bringing with them the memory of justice. But we live in a world of laws, a world of the second-best. There is nothing we can do about that. We are fallen creatures. All we can do is to uphold the laws, all of us, without allowing the memory of justice to fade.

On the contrary, I am living it out from day to day, trying to accept disgrace as my state of being. Is it enough for God, do you think, that I live in disgrace without term?

Nothing is worse than what we can imagine.

The world is more various than we ever give it credit for.