We are not by nature cruel.

J. M. Coetzee

Cruel We By Nature

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There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.

J. M. Coetzee

Because Case Culture Imitation

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The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

J. M. Coetzee

Deepest Early Early Life Imprint

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The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law.

J. M. Coetzee

Animals Cannot Day Domesticated

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The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness.

J. M. Coetzee

Consciousness Different Human Human Consciousness

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The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

J. M. Coetzee

Certainly Dead Feel Idea

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Strictly speaking, my interest is not in legal rights for animals but in a change of heart towards animals.

J. M. Coetzee

Animals Change Heart Interest

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In order to be cruel we have to close our hearts to the suffering of the other.

J. M. Coetzee

Close Cruel Hearts Order

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If there were a better, clearer, shorter way of saying what the fiction says, then why not scrap the fiction?

J. M. Coetzee

Better Clearer Fiction Saying

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If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

J. M. Coetzee

About Animal Animals Belong

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I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction.

J. M. Coetzee

Fiction Interpret My Own Own

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I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

J. M. Coetzee

About Beings Constant Human

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I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

J. M. Coetzee

African Because Clearly European

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Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

J. M. Coetzee

After Claims Diligently Elizabeth

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The end of confession is to tell the truth to and for oneself.

J. M. Coetzee

Confession End Oneself Tell

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Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them.

J. M. Coetzee

About Around Book Comic

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I read a great deal as a child. A lot of children go through a phase of reading in a literally voracious way. It is their primary imaginative activity. Maybe that's an experience which is not so common any more with the presence of television in every home.

J. M. Coetzee

Activity Any Child Children

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All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

J. M. Coetzee

Autobiography Storytelling Writing

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Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa - wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death.

J. M. Coetzee

Africa Bleeding Body Busy

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South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison.

J. M. Coetzee

African Bondage Exactly Expect

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"20 J. M. Coetzee Quotes & Sayings

We are not by nature cruel.

J. M. Coetzee

There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.

J. M. Coetzee

The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

J. M. Coetzee

The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

J. M. Coetzee

Strictly speaking, my interest is not in legal rights for animals but in a change of heart towards animals.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

If there were a better, clearer, shorter way of saying what the fiction says, then why not scrap the fiction?

J. M. Coetzee

If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

J. M. Coetzee

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

J. M. Coetzee

Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them.

J. M. Coetzee

I read a great deal as a child. A lot of children go through a phase of reading in a literally voracious way. It is their primary imaginative activity. Maybe that's an experience which is not so common any more with the presence of television in every home.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa - wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death.

J. M. Coetzee

South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quotes & Sayings

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"20 J. M. Coetzee Quotes & Sayings

We are not by nature cruel.

J. M. Coetzee

There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.

J. M. Coetzee

The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

J. M. Coetzee

The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

J. M. Coetzee

Strictly speaking, my interest is not in legal rights for animals but in a change of heart towards animals.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

If there were a better, clearer, shorter way of saying what the fiction says, then why not scrap the fiction?

J. M. Coetzee

If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

J. M. Coetzee

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

J. M. Coetzee

Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them.

J. M. Coetzee

I read a great deal as a child. A lot of children go through a phase of reading in a literally voracious way. It is their primary imaginative activity. Maybe that's an experience which is not so common any more with the presence of television in every home.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee

Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa - wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death.

J. M. Coetzee

South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison.

J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quotes & Sayings

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