Lars Mytting > Quotes

“Not many people have a timber forest of their own,”
― Lars Mytting, Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

“The lower the place of an animal in the animal kingdom, the more fertile it is, and the smaller an animal, the shorter its gestation period, and the lower the resistance of the foetus."
—"Pregnancy with Multiple Foetuses", a chapter in a book found in a room”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“How long is it possible to watch a man fishing where there are no fish?”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“A house of events that were not to be spoken of. A house of turning points in life, where women were reminded of their place in the animal kingdom.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Si lo que tienes es un dos de tréboles y un tres de diamantes, eso es lo que hay. Ese día pierdes y se acabó. Lo único que justifica que te quejes es que te hayan repartido cuatro cartas si te corresponden cinco.”
― Lars Mytting, Los dieciséis árboles del Somme

“Ingen har rene hender etter to år med krig, da er det godt å klistre lort på andre”
― Lars Mytting, Skråpånatta

“Do not punish yourself with thoughts of what you could have done differently. If you look at life as a whole, most of our conduct is second-rate. We are blind to the goodness people are prepared to offer us. We only half-listen when someone tells us something they have dreaded saying. Death does not send us a letter giving three weeks' notice. It arrives when you are eating raspberry sweets. When you have to go out and mow the lawn.”
― Lars Mytting, The Sixteen Trees of the Somme

“The area around the point at which the oak trunk divides in two provides an incredibly strong V shape, which was frequently used by shipbuilders to make ribs. One of the timber wonders of the world is the ceiling of Westminster Hall, in London, made six hundred years ago. Many of its arches follow the natural lines of the oaks from which they were cut.”
― Lars Mytting, Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

“Soms is de waarheid gebaat bij enige vertraging.’ Het”
― Lars Mytting, De vlamberken

“Det var ingenting å lese i ansiktene deres. Ingenting! Han mente å kunne gjenkjenne ondskap når han så den. Her så han bare mennesker, vanlige mennesker!”
― Lars Mytting, Skråpånatta

“Folks need summat beautiful too … Not like an ornament. But beauty they can feel inside of them.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Quizá has sufrido ya tanto que no te cabe más.”
― Lars Mytting, Los dieciséis árboles del Somme

“Many people believe that the metric system isn't so well suited to construction work. The old system is in better harmony with art and carpentry, where we operate with wholes, halves, and thirds—just think about the golden ratio. At one time, there was even an agreed model for sorting out any disagreements over the Saxon measurements.
"Oh? Tell me!"
"Four reputable men, who had never met before, would, on the king's orders, gather on a particular Saturday and spend the night travelling to some randomly chosen church. They would wait outside and, when Mass was over they'd pull aside the first sixteen men who came out and tell them to remove their right shoes. Then they'd take all these shoes and line them up toe to heel—in the order in which the men had emerged—and stretch a thin rope along the entire length of the shoes, cut it and bring it to the king. The rope would then be folded four times, and the resultant sixteenth part would be the new standard foot.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“The Sister Bells had neither a sad nor fearful ring. At the core of each chime was a vibrancy, a promise of a better spring, a resonance coloured by beautiful, sustained vibrations. Their sound penetrated deeply, creating mirages in the mind and touching the most hardened of men. With a skilful bell-ringer the Sister Bells could turn doubters into churchgoers, and the explanation for their powerful tone was that they were malmfulle - that silver had been added to the bronze when the church bells were cast. The more silver, the more beautiful and resonant the chime. The skilfully crafted moulds and bronze had already cost Eirik Hekne a fortune, far more than his twin daughters had ever earned with their weaves. In the madness of his grief he went to the melting pot and threw in all his silver cutlery, then shoved his big working hands deep into his pockets and threw two fistfuls of silver dalers into the boiling alloy, coins that stayed on the surface surprisingly long, before they melted and the bubbles rose”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Something good was waiting for her somewhere in the world. With him she would find what was hers, whatever that might be, and she would defend it so that she could call it "mine".”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“He knew very well—he preached it himself—that faith was only faith when it required no answers or proof.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“But she had never forgotten what her grandfather had said:
"Ask yersen what ye want to be remembered for, Astrid. . . . The things folks are remembered for are cast in metal or carpented or woven or painted or written. Wickedness and foolishness, not in a small way but big, these be oft remembered too.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“«Mi madre era para mí un olor. Era un calor, una pierna a la que me aferraba, un soplo de algo azulado, un vestido que creía recordar que usaba.»”
― Lars Mytting, Los dieciséis árboles del Somme

“Lo sentí vivo a la vez que muerto, muerto como en el negativo de la Leica, vivo porque sabía que aquello le habría gustado. Al final cogí las entradas de los conciertos y las fui soltando por el ataúd, aterrizaron como plumas de pájaro que eligen el punto del suelo en el que quieren descansar.”
― Lars Mytting, Los dieciséis árboles del Somme

“The frost and flame be good friends.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Rumours are the seeds of legends, light enough to spread on the wind, and quick to grow. By the time a truth has put down its roots, rumours will have blossomed and become their own truths, because even the wildest fantasy has been told by someone, and this - the fact of something being told by someone - gives it a veracity, even if what is told is more than a little unlikely”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Derfor kan vi ikke lære av historien, for det onde vender alltid tilbake med nytt ansikt. Hva vi må gjenkjenne, er hatet i oss selv.”
― Lars Mytting, Skråpånatta

“There, in one of his essays, the young poet mused over why nobody died for love anymore, and why sinners and outlaws always had the best luck with women.
As usual, Donne answered his own question: "Because fortune herself is a whore.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Mange er de som tror at grusomhet er noe som tilligger andre folkeslag”
― Lars Mytting, Skråpånatta

“But no one has ever gone to war over a firewood forest, and no species of seabird has ever been drenched in oil because a trailer load of firewood ended up in a ditch.”
― Lars Mytting, Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

“Nuovargį ištvęrti lengviau nei sielvartą.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“En ting har krig lært meg. Sverd blir smidd i glør og herdet i vann. Helter, de smis av vanlige mennesker og herdes av urettferdighet”
― Lars Mytting, Skråpånatta

“. . . and just as her scarf sat proudly over her curls, so too did her pride in the Hekne tradition: speak clearly and honestly, never speak ill of others. Do not mistreat your crofters, take in paupers without question. Be mild in your manner, never belittle anyone. The true legacy—honour, the firmness of a promise, the honesty of a handshake—could not be measured in money nor diminish in value, so long as each and every Hekne conducted themselves well.”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Poverty robs people of pride”
― Lars Mytting, The Bell in the Lake

“Ik trok de kleren aan. Ging voor de open haard zitten. Legde mijn voeten op een poef. Keek in de vlammen. Voor mij waren werkkleren altijd het antwoord geweest als het leven me te veel werd. De werkdag binnenstappen, de schouders eronder zetten, volhouden, me afmatten. Op”
― Lars Mytting, De vlamberken