Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. J. M. Coetzee More Quotes by J. M. Coetzee More Quotes From J. M. Coetzee I don't think we are ready to die, any of us, not without being escorted. J. M. Coetzee ready-to-die ready thinking His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origin of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul. J. M. Coetzee air song lying In my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love. J. M. Coetzee lightning falling-in-love sight Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for? J. M. Coetzee hero character life It gets harder all the time, Bev Shaw once said. Harder, yet easier. One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be hard as hard can be grows harder yet. J. M. Coetzee easier used said Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt. J. M. Coetzee subjects pain doubt Words are coin. Words alienate. Language is no medium for desire. Desire is rapture, not exchange. J. M. Coetzee coins language desire The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness. J. M. Coetzee consciousness different humans It’s admirable, what you do, what she does, but to me animal-welfare people are a bit like Christians of a certain kind. Everyone is so cheerful and well-intentioned that after a while you itch to go off and do some raping and pillaging. Or to kick a cat. J. M. Coetzee cat christian animal Our lies reveal as much about us as our truths J. M. Coetzee lying That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world. J. M. Coetzee stories people thinking That was our first time together. Interesting, an interesting experience, but not earth-shaking. But then, I never expected it to be earth-shaking, not with him. What I was determined to avoid was emotional entanglement. A passing fling was one thing, an affair of the heart quite another. Of myself I was fairly sure. I was not about to lose my heart to a man about whom I knew next to nothing. J. M. Coetzee emotional heart men I must not fall asleep in the middle of my life. Out of the blankness that surrounds me I must pluck the incident after incident after incident whose little explosions keep me going. J. M. Coetzee littles life fall I speak to the broken halves of all our selves and tell them to embrace, loving the worst in us equally with the best. J. M. Coetzee broken half self The modern state appeals to morality, to religion, and to natural law as the ideological foundation of its existence. At the same time it is prepared to infringe any or all of these in the interest of self-preservation. J. M. Coetzee foundation self law Being a father ... I can't help feeling that, by comparison with being a mother, being a father is a rather abstract business. J. M. Coetzee mother feelings father Reason is simply a vast tautology. J. M. Coetzee tautology reason We are not by nature cruel. J. M. Coetzee The end of confession is to tell the truth to and for oneself. J. M. Coetzee confession telling-the-truth ends If there were a better, clearer, shorter way of saying what the fiction says, then why not scrap the fiction? J. M. Coetzee why-not way fiction
