German - Writer | May 18, 1944 - December 14, 2001
When I was a boy, I'd hide under the kitchen table and wind string around the chairs. I have a sense now that I am pulling on those threads. The more I pull, the more it comes unraveled.
W. G. Sebald
I AmWindKitchenHideTableBoy
The writing I do makes great demands on translators.
GreatWritingDemandsMakes
Mine is a European imagination, shaped largely by my very promiscuous reading in German, French, English and, with greater difficulty, Italian.
ImaginationReadingDifficultyMine
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.
MemoryHappyMindChanceYouLook
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.
GreatTimeSchoolMemoryDarkRoom
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.
FatherParentsArmyCaptainOut
If you're based in two places, on a bad day you see only the disadvantages everywhere. On a bad day, returning to Germany brings back all kinds of spectres from the past.
DayPastBad DayYouBadBack
Although I hold a German passport, I feel very much alienated when I'm there.
FeelPassportHoldI FeelMuchVery
Up until the 17th century, Germany was far more advanced, but then everything devastated by the 30 Years War began to fall apart... The culture is not innocent.
CultureWarFallInnocentMoreUp
My father was not really a presence for me. He was away; he was in the German army.
FatherMeArmyPresenceAwayHe
There is a beauty in nature and culture that we no longer have access to. Those things you can't forget, you embroider... The further you tell, the further you travel from truth, which means, of course, that literature is a lie.
NatureBeautyTruthCultureTravel
My texts are written like palimpsests. They are written over and over again, until I feel that a kind of metaphysical meaning can be read through the writing.
WritingFeelMeaningKindOverLike
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict W. G. Sebald quotes