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Imre Kertesz Quotes
A book is either autobiography or a novel.
~ Imre Kertesz
Autobiography
Book
Either
Novel
design
copy
A good autobiography is like a document: a mirror of the age on which people can 'depend.' In a novel, by contrast, it's not the facts that matter, but precisely what you add to the facts.
~ Imre Kertesz
Add
Age
Autobiography
Contrast
Depend
Document
Facts
Good
Like
Matter
Mirror
Novel
People
Precisely
Which
You
design
copy
I am no historian, but Hungary is a country which has never known democracy - and by that, I mean not a democratic political system, but an organic process which has mobilised the entire country's society. In the case of Hungary, this development was blocked by the growth of the Ottoman empire in the 16th century.
~ Imre Kertesz
Am
Blocked
Case
Century
Country
Democracy
Democratic
Development
Empire
Entire
Growth
Historian
Hungary
I Am
Known
Mean
Never
Organic
Political
Political System
Process
Society
System
Which
design
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I came from two harsh dictatorships, Nazi and Stalinist. I never thought of becoming a writer as such, yet in a lucid moment, I recognised what I had to do.
~ Imre Kertesz
Becoming
Came
Dictatorships
Had
Harsh
I Came
Lucid
Moment
Never
Recognised
Thought
Two
Writer
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I have not changed my opinion that the Holocaust is a trauma of European civilization.
~ Imre Kertesz
Changed
Civilization
European
Holocaust
Opinion
Trauma
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I think a man turns into a writer by editing his own texts.
~ Imre Kertesz
Editing
His
I Think
Man
Own
Texts
Think
Turns
Writer
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I was interned in Auschwitz for one year. I didn't bring back anything, except for a few jokes, and that filled me with shame. Then again, I didn't know what to do with this fresh experience. For this experience was no literary awakening, no occasion for professional or artistic introspection.
~ Imre Kertesz
Again
Anything
Artistic
Auschwitz
Awakening
Back
Bring
Except
Experience
Few
Filled
Fresh
Introspection
Jokes
Know
Literary
Me
Occasion
Professional
Shame
Then
Year
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If the world is an objective reality that exists independently of us, then humans themselves, even in their own eyes, are nothing more than objects, and their life stories merely a series of disconnected historical accidents, which they may wonder at, but which they themselves have nothing to do with.
~ Imre Kertesz
Accidents
Disconnected
Even
Exists
Eyes
Historical
Humans
Independently
Life
May
Merely
More
Nothing
Objective
Objects
Own
Reality
Series
Stories
Than
Themselves
Then
Us
Which
Wonder
World
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If there is such a thing as freedom, then there is no fate.
~ Imre Kertesz
Fate
Freedom
Such A Thing
Then
Thing
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In a democracy, you have to find a market niche, make sure a novel is 'interesting' and 'spectacular.' That may be the toughest censorship of all.
~ Imre Kertesz
Censorship
Democracy
Find
Interesting
Make
Market
May
Niche
Novel
Spectacular
Sure
Toughest
You
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copy
It is often said of me - some intend it as a compliment, others as a complaint - that I write about a single subject: the Holocaust. I have no quarrel with that. Why shouldn't I accept, with certain qualifications, the place assigned to me on the shelves of libraries?
~ Imre Kertesz
About
Accept
Assigned
Certain
Complaint
Compliment
Holocaust
I Write
Intend
Libraries
Me
Often
Others
Place
Qualifications
Quarrel
Said
Shelves
Single
Some
Subject
Why
Write
design
copy
Modern life is organised so that you benefit at the expense of the other, and the most extreme example of that is a camp.
~ Imre Kertesz
Benefit
Camp
Example
Expense
Extreme
Life
Modern
Modern Life
Most
Organised
Other
You
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No one in my family wrote. And there was no real introduction. I suppose I somehow blundered into it when I was about six or seven years old. I was asked what present I would like, and, without knowing why, I responded that I would like a journal. It was a beautiful journal - so beautiful that I didn't want to sully it.
~ Imre Kertesz
About
Asked
Beautiful
Family
Introduction
Journal
Knowing
Like
No-One
Old
Present
Real
Seven
Six
Somehow
Suppose
Want
Why
Without
Would
Wrote
Years
design
copy
The Holocaust survivor who knows Auschwitz through the experience of suffering observes it all from the perspective assigned to him. He keeps silent or gives interviews to the Spielberg Foundation, he accepts the compensation payments promised him after a fifty-year delay, or, if he is prominent, he makes a speech in the Swedish Academy.
~ Imre Kertesz
Academy
Accepts
After
Assigned
Auschwitz
Compensation
Delay
Experience
Foundation
Gives
He
Him
Holocaust
Interviews
Keeps
Knows
Makes
Payments
Perspective
Prominent
Promised
Silent
Speech
Spielberg
Suffering
Survivor
Swedish
Through
Who
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The world of fiction is a sovereign world that comes to life in the author's head and follows the rules of art, of literature. And that is the major difference that is reflected in the form of the work, in its language and its plot. An author invents every aspect of a fiction, every detail.
~ Imre Kertesz
Art
Aspect
Author
Detail
Difference
Every
Fiction
Follows
Form
Head
Language
Life
Literature
Major
Plot
Reflected
Rules
Sovereign
Work
World
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What I discovered in Auschwitz is the human condition, the end point of a great adventure, where the European traveler arrived after his two-thousand-year-old moral and cultural history.
~ Imre Kertesz
Adventure
After
Arrived
Auschwitz
Condition
Cultural
Discovered
End
European
Great
His
History
Human
Human Condition
Moral
Point
Traveler
Where
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copy
When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over.
~ Imre Kertesz
About
Auschwitz
Begins
Black
Certain
Cheap
Excuse
Expression
Know
Least
Literature
Must
Novel
Only
Over
Sense
Serial
Should
Still
Suspended
Which
Write
You
design
copy
Writing changed my life. It has an existential dimension, and that's the same for every writer. Every artist has a moment of awakening, of happening upon an idea that grabs hold of you, regardless of whether you are a painter or a writer.
~ Imre Kertesz
Artist
Awakening
Changed
Dimension
Every
Existential
Happening
Hold
Idea
Life
Moment
My Life
Painter
Regardless
Same
Whether
Writer
Writing
You
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copy
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AuthorName
Imre Kertesz
Profession
Author
BirthDate
09 November, 1929
DeathDate
31 March, 2016
Country
Hungary
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