Arnošt Lustig > Quotes

“Sometimes it's impossible to say certain things ... Writing is something needed by man to share experience.”
― Arnost Lustig

“Some people know they'll live until spring and that's all they need to be happy. When I was feeling good, I just let the sun go down, knowing I'd see it again next morning. When I felt worse, and it didn't matter for what reasons, every sunset seemed to me like the end of the world. Maybe it's true, that the world dies every day at evening and is born again in the morning. But not always for everybody.”
― Arnost Lustig

“Life is not what we want but what we have.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Dita Saxova

“Time reminds everybody of death, but who goes around day and night talking about it? Was this the source of that strange anxiety which sometimes comes over us, without our knowing why? Like some strange sister of joy, it was a tremor of fear, of ending, of all that begins and passes away. Was this the source of that odd loneliness we feel even when we aren't alone. and which is akin to stardust?”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“The past looks lovely and important only when the present, the here and now, is miserable and when the future looks unclear or even dismal.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“When you abandon everything you can believe in, you're abandoning yourself. As if you've never existed. But that takes a long time. If you're no longer in control of your own life, can you at least be in control of its end?”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“To kill and caress. Or simply kill, so you're not always bothered by something or somebody. So it is to be killed or to kill.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“Hunger and cold were like two walls with no room for anything else in between but loneliness, in which a man is a stranger even to himself.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“Jak rika moje bába: Co mé ceka , vrhá uz dopiedu stin.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Propast

“„Můžete se volně pohybovat," řekl, „ovšemže pouze uvnitř; nechoďte však k východům z vagónu. Ve svém vlastním zájmu."

Všech devatenáct pánů bylo okamžitě před oddělením pana Hermana Cohena; vznášeli němé dotazy - k němu i jeden druhému; pohyby brv i brad, zřítelnic i rukou uka­zovaly směrem k táboru, ale jen beze slov, protože stráže byly stále přítomné. Kouř byl všude a lidé tam venku se pohybovali jako stíny kulometných věží. Pan Rappaport-Lieben plakal.

„Viděl jsem smrt tisíce krav, jalovic a bý­ků... vím... co to je..."

„Nesýčkujte."

„Nic už, proboha, ne­přivolávejte."

„Vytrvejte."

„Doma o tom nemají tušení..."

„Mám rodinu, děti..."

„Pořád ještě máme naději."

„Máme jí málo, ale máme ji."

„Nikdo z nás to přece nezavinil."

„Měli jsme se starat jen o sebe."

„Nevykoupíme se ani krví."

„Nedejme se rozložit..."

„Vyčkejme, co bude."

„Dost!"

„Ani svatba, ani pohřeb... nic..."

„Pánové, máme ještě mnoho peněz, oni to dobře vědí a v tom je ne­jen naše naděje," řekl hlasitě pan Herman Cohen, „ale i naše sebevědomí. Držme se. Jsme přece lidé, kteří ně­co znamenají."

Ale pan Rappaport-Lieben stále vzdy­chal.

„Jatka... tisíce hovad... peníze, důstojnost a nakonec vždycky krev...”
― Arnošt Lustig

“To be here or somewhere else, to live or not to live, to look out through a broken window or not to look.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“She stared ahead with eyes where dreams no longer swam, where thoughts no longer had any life. It was that hazy stare of old people behind which was the mysterious nothingness which was drawing nearer, the absolute end, the annihilation of everything and everybody, the awful end in helplessness, grief, grief, and the sleep of everything there is.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“It was more than knowing or not knowing, beside stillness and shouts, memory and images of the future.”
― Arnošt Lustig, The House of Returned Echoes

“It occurred to me that his words had a shadow. Or teeth and claws, and blood. Some kind of invisible whip. How words can be a trap, a trick and a net, not for butterflies or birds, or lions! The things that words promise.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Waiting for Leah

“Svym lidem jsem nikdy nelhala, rekla matka.

„Vim jenom, Ze cim jsi na tom hür, tím víc a snadnèji Izes i têm, kteri jsou ti nejbliz”
― Arnošt Lustig, Propast

“There was some need, some attraction that drew him closer to the German boy whose life he'd save, just to lose his own. But it was life that connected them, because it was death at the same time. It couldn't be put into words, it was intangible, but it was as complete as everything in life is; it was what connected birds and people or a grain of dust and the stars. It was strong because it was so weak and weak because it was so strong.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“Were you ever lucky enough to watch a cat closely as it falls, Emil? Arthur asked. It always lands on all fours. First, a cat orients herself - you need a head and eyes for that. Then she sets her front paws in case the ground comes sooner than she expects, and in between, if she's still got the time and the space, she arches her back - then, she curves her spine and drops like a furry parachute. She takes the fall in phases. When she's coming down she lets all the parts of her body absorb the fall, including her tail - that serves as a rudder, so that it will be the softest possible landing.”
― Arnost lustig, The House of Returned Echoes

“The hope killed them," said the old man. "It killed the very best of them. And hopelessness straightened out the very best of us.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“To look good in defeat is the ultimate a person can want.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“Vedet víc nez más ti zkazi zivot”
― Arnošt Lustig, Propast

“There are some things we run after and it turns out that we run in vain. Then there are things we don't pursue, and those are the things that escape us.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night

“The day after tomorrow you'll say that only the day before you saw someone who no longer exists. He stays in your memory for a split second and then vanishes.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Waiting for Leah

“We lived a decent and beautiful life," the old man said. "Maybe it's our innocence that irritates those who hate us so much and makes them kill us and burn us and hang us. It was a magnificent life because we lived in peace with ourselves. But we were always in the minority.”
― Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night