Tibor Fischer > Quotes

“No amount of intelligence can save you from stupidity.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“Why is erasing desire seen as so important? If the subjugation of the self is the point of the self what's the point in having a self? It's like someone handing you a leaflet which says throw this leaflet away.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“Few pleasures are greater than knowing you can close your door, ignore the world and create your own.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“You read a lot," said the behatted kvetch indicating the two novels he had open. He nodded, because there was no denying it and because he didn't want to put up the ante for a conversation.

Books aren't life."

No, they're better," he replied and flipped through the thirty-two library cards in his wallet to remove his one credit card to pay.

This was twenty-first century vagrancy.”
― Tibor Fischer, Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid: Stories

“Many of us, I suppose, see our existences not as lives, but as life-holders, zarfs, waiting for the job, the person, the event to fill it.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“I always consider every place worth exploring once- just in case there's a thirty foot flaming sign divulging the secret of life, that no one has told me about.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“I don't know why they call it life, it's just a moment with memories.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“The greatest danger of being gifted, is that you may never learn how to make an effort.”
― Tibor Fischer

“Once you've been backstage at a theater, the theater is never the same for you. Once you've noticed the crack in the vase, the vase is never the same for. Once you've seen a friend do something appalling, the friendship is never the same. That does not mean you won't go to the theater, or keep the vase or the friend. You can choose.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“Stay cool, and wait for opportunity.”
― Tibor Fischer, Good to be God

“It’s like training dogs. You want the dog to obey you, but you can’t have real respect for a dog that always obeys you. You want a dog that occasionally goes over the wall or bites the postman without your permission; you want to be reminded that you command a subdued yet wild animal, not a crawler. A man should be strong enough to kill you with his bare hands.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“Why endure verticality when you can be horizontal?”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“We might not want to share our food or our money, but we do want to share our judgement. We want others to think we have more fun.But we need meeting-places of the mind. A Kilimanjaro of spirit that we've all visited so we can say of other things: it's shorter, or taller, or the same height as Kilimanjaro.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“Laziness always wins.”
― Tibor Fischer, Good to be God

“Even those with unspendable fortunes only have one mind, one mouth, two ears, two eyes and one pleasure station. There's only so much fun you can take.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“Almost all of us have the hankering to be famous, to be important, to be admired, to stand out, but the assumption is you have to be different or better to get that. No. The best thing is to be famous, to be cuddled by the public, but to be like everyone else.”
― Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

“The one big drawback to speaking German is that, by in large, you can only speak it with Germans.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“The big question is why do we need the news? People who don't know who's in goverment still want the news. Is it because listening to the news allows us to have opinions? Is it because it gives us something to talk about, the human weather? Most readers who put down a paper certainly feel qualified to rule the world.”
― Tibor Fischer

“Perfection is only chance.”
― Tibor Fischer, Good to be God

“Book-writing is always much easier in other people's lives.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“Ma come tutti sappiamo, l'unico modo per risolvere un problema molto difficile.... è lasciar perdere. ( p.455)”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“... I wouldn't like to have to translate Márai myself. At times, his ordering of words can be as intricate and polished as Ovid's. It is worth pointing out that the original Hungarian title of Embers is "Candles Burn to the End" - a little unwieldy, perhaps, in English, but a title better suited to a novel about how the important emotions never end until death.”
― Tibor Fischer

“He couldn't remember either the names or the addresses or the telephone numbers of two or three staggeringly attractive women he had met: their details were always just out of recall, the fingertips of his memory couldn't reach the shelf they were kept on, so he had no way of tracking down the beauties.”
― Tibor Fischer

“Nice seeing you, Eddie. We must have lunch sometime.'

I've always found it curious how many people, when they are clearly in an unrivalled physical and mental state to arrange a lunch or drink, don't do so, but merely say that they should.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“This is how I became rich: I was at home at four-thirty on a Friday afternoon.
Rich? Rich for many. Comfortable for some. Comfortable well-off I would say.”
― Tibor Fischer

“It's easy to jeer at the thought anthills (too easy). In spite of it all, even a nullifidian like me has seen goodness, bravery, even intelligence. The really decent people I've known, no one else would have heard of; decency seems to bar you from high office and prominence. But they're there. Those who spout concern for others, the welfare 'n' solicitude fiends, are the ones who bully waiters, neglect their children and who pay their gardeners pittances.”
― Tibor Fischer

“Attraversiamo a guado domande e risposte che ci arrivano alla cintola; hanno innondato il mondo, ce ne sono talmente tante che riuscire ad accoppiarne anche poche è già tanto. Ed è un lavoro tristemente arduo. ( p.101)”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“Arriva il momento quando l'astuzia e la spiritosaggine sono spazzate via. Si trema all'idea che si sarà rimpinzati di finali tristi fino a farceli uscire dalle orecchie. Quelli che la gente considera finali lieti non sono, naturalmente, finali: i finali sono per definizione tristi.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

“Хронические алкоголики типа Френка пьют потому, что, по общему мнению, выпивка помогает забыться; и ведь многие в это верят, точно так же, как две-три тысячи лет назад люди верили, что верный способ избавиться от головной боли – это просверлить дырку в голове, или что если кого-нибудь задушить посреди засеянного поля, то урожай будет богатым.”
― Tibor Fischer, Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid: Stories

“Winning is not life, fighting for third place is.”
― Tibor Fischer, The Collector Collector