And so they are ever returning to us, the dead. At times they come back from the ice more than seven decades later and are found at the edge of the moraine, a few polished bones and a pair of hobnailed boots. W. G. Sebald More Quotes by W. G. Sebald More Quotes From W. G. Sebald To my mind, it seems clear that those who have no memory have the much greater chance to lead happy lives. But it is something you cannot possibly escape: your psychological make-up is such that you are inclined to look back over your shoulder. W. G. Sebald memory you mind happy Places seem to me to have some kind of memory, in that they activate memory in those who look at them. W. G. Sebald some memory look me In school I was in the dark room all the time, and I've always collected stray photographs; there's a great deal of memory in them. W. G. Sebald memory great time school I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business. W. G. Sebald through always business way Occasionally I write a small piece or the odd lecture in English, and I teach in English, but my fiction is always written in German. W. G. Sebald english small always teach Comparing oneself with one's fellow writers is a bad idea. I would not review a fellow writer unless I had something terribly positive to say. W. G. Sebald say something bad positive I've always felt that the traditional novel doesn't give you enough information about the narrator, and I think it's important to know the point of view from which these tales are told: the moral makeup of the teller. W. G. Sebald view think you makeup My parents came from working-class, small-peasant, farm-labourer backgrounds and had made the grade during the fascist years; my father came out of the army as a captain. W. G. Sebald captain parents army father Unlike Conrad or Nabokov, I didn't have circumstances which would have coerced me out of my native tongue altogether. W. G. Sebald out me tongue circumstances In the history of postwar German writing, for the first 15 or 20 years, people avoided mentioning political persecution - the incarceration and systematic extermination of whole peoples and groups in society. Then, from 1965, this became a preoccupation of writers - not always in an acceptable form. W. G. Sebald society political history people It must be extremely uncomfortable to live with a writer - all that preoccupation and brooding. W. G. Sebald writer live must uncomfortable
