Imre Kertész Quotes

I look on my life as raw material for my novels: that's just the way I am, and it frees me from any inhibitions.

...I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.

I refuse to adapt or integrate myself.

Talking is not enough; words don't clarify anything. I'll have to hit upon something, but what?

There's just one revolution that I can take seriously, and that's a police revolution.

Of course, living is another way of killing oneself: its drawback is that it takes so horribly long.

I am sick of atrocities, though these are now the natural order of our world. And I would still like to act!

I tried to depict the human face of this history, I wanted to write a book that people would actually want to read.

Nonexistence. The society of the nonexistent. In the street yesterday a nonexistent person trod on my foot with his nonexistent foot.

One cannot start a new life, you can only continue the old one.

Myslím, že na místa, kde se odvíjely rozhodující události našich životů, stojí za to občas zavítat, abychom zjistili: nemáme sami se sebou nic společného.

Kurti had believed in politics, and politics had deceived him, the way politics deceives everyone.

The West in general should stand up more for its own values. It is not always worthwhile to compromise.