It is thanks to my evening reading alone that I am still more or less sane. 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 memoryyoumindhappy Places seem to me to have some kind of memory, in that they activate memory in those who look at them. W. G. Sebald somememorylookme 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 memorygreattimeschool I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business. W. G. Sebald throughalwaysbusinessway 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 englishsmallalwaysteach 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 saysomethingbadpositive 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 viewthinkyoumakeup 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 captainparentsarmyfather Unlike Conrad or Nabokov, I didn't have circumstances which would have coerced me out of my native tongue altogether. W. G. Sebald outmetonguecircumstances 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 societypoliticalhistorypeople It must be extremely uncomfortable to live with a writer - all that preoccupation and brooding. W. G. Sebald writerlivemustuncomfortable
