Cees Nooteboom Quotes

Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases.

The world is a never-ending cross-reference.

She had nothing to do all day ... but did it with the greatest possible speed.

I find it unbearable to need a body in order to exist.

Through men ... you learn how the world is. Through women you learn what it is.

Language is something you inherit, it's never just you doing the talking, which helps when you're pretending.

I have never cared much for people. Most of them are cowards, conformists, muddleheads, moneygrubbers, and they infect each other.

As far as he could see, the world was moving, in an orderly capitalist fashion, toward a logical, perhaps provisional, perhaps permanent, end.

Conversations consist for the most part of things one does not say.

Man is a sad mammal that combs its hair.

I am a hindrance to the world, and the world is a hindrance to me.

We are our secrets, and, if all goes well, we will take them with us to where no-one can touch them.