Isaac Babel > Quotes

“No iron can stab the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.”
― Isaac Babel, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel

“A well-thought-out story doesn’t need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story.”
― Isaac Babel

“Even at the time—twenty years old—I said to myself: better to go hungry, to go to prison, to be a tramp, than to sit at an office desk ten hours a day. There is no particular daring in this vow, but I have not broken it and shall not do so. The wisdom of my grandfathers sat in my head: we are born for the pleasure of work, fighting, love, we are born for that and nothing else. (Guy de Maupassant)”
― Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry and Other Stories

“If the world could write itself, it would write like Tolstoy.”
― Isaac Babel

“No iron spike can pierce a human heart as icily as a period in the right place.”
― Isaac Babel

“Всеки интелигентен човек трябва да прочете през живота си, както следва, 8-10 книги. Какво именно? Тъкмо за да разберете това, прочетете петнадесет хиляди тома.”
― Isaac Babel

“When a phrase is born, it is both good and bad at the same time. The secret of its success rests in a crux that is barely discernible. One's fingertips must grasp the key, gently warming it. And then the key must be turned once, not twice.”
― Isaac Babel

“Just forget for a minute that you have spectacles on your nose and autumn in your heart. Stop being tough at your desk and stammering with timidity in the presence of people. Imagine for one second that you raise hell in public and stammer on paper. You’re a tiger, a lion, a cat. You spend a night with a Russian woman and leave her satisfied. You’re twenty five. If rings had been fastened to the earth and sky, you’d have seized them and pulled the sky down to earth”
― Isaac Babel

“No iron can pierce the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time.”
― Isaac Babel

“For me the whole world is like a gigantic theater in which I am the only spectator without opera glasses. The orchestra plays the prelude to the third act, the stage is far away as in a dream, my heart swells with delight—and you want to blind me with a pair of half-ruble spectacles?”
― Isaac Babel

“Излязохме на улицата. Старецът спря, почука силно с бастун по паважа и впери поглед в мен.
- Какво ти липсва?...Младостта не е беда, с годините ще мине...Липсва ти усет за природата.
Той ми посочи с бастун дърво с червеникав ствол и ниска корона.
- Какво е това дърво?
Аз не знаех.
- Какво расте на този храст?
И това не знаех. Вървяхме с него през градинката на Александровския булевард. Старецът сочеше с бастуна всички дървета, хващаше ме за рамото, когато прелиташе птица, и ме караше да слушам отделните гласове.
- Каква птица пее?
Не можех нищо да кажа. Имената на дървета и птици, деленето им на родове, накъде летят птиците, от коя страна изгрява слънцето, кога росата е по-обилна - всичко това ми беше неизвестно.
- И ти се осмеляваш да пишеш?...Човек, който не живее сред природата, както живее в нея камъкът или животното, няма да напише през целия си живот и два свестни реда....Твоите пейзажи приличат на описания на декори. За какво, по дяволите, са мислили четиринайсет години твоите родители?...”
― Isaac Babel

“The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head, gentle light glimmers in the ravines among the clouds, the banners of the sunset are fluttering above our heads. The stench of yesterday’s blood and slaughtered horses drips into the evening chill.”
― Isaac Babel, The Complete Works of Isaac Babel

“Her sponge cakes had the aroma of crucifixion.Within them was the sap of slyness and the fragrant frenzy of the Vatican.”
― Isaac Babel, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel

“Оранжевото слънце се търкаля по небето като отсечена глава, нежна светлина припламва в клисурите на облаците, щандартите на залеза се веят над нашите глави. Мирис на вчерашна кръв и убити коне капе във вечерната прохлада.”
― Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry

“No one responds to the newness of new things like children.”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“You must know everything. The whole world will fall at your feet and grovel before you. Everybody must envy you. Do not trust people. Do not have friends. Do not lend them money. Do not give them your heart!”
― Isaac Babel, You Must Know Everything

“Никакое железо не может войти в человеческое сердце так леденяще, как точка, поставленная вовремя.”
― Исаак Бабель

“We slept, all six of us, beneath a wooden roof that let in the stars, warming one another, our legs intermingled. I dreamed: and in my dreams saw women. But my heart, stained with bloodshed, grated and brimmed over.”
― Isaac Babel

“Нет одиночества безвыходней, чем одиночество в Париже.”
― Исаак Бабель

“I watched the hoops of other people’s happiness roll past me.”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“Имало една жена, Ксения се казвала. В гърдите едра, в раменете заоблена, очите ѝ сини. Жена и половина. Де и за нас такава.

Мъжът ѝ загинал през войната. Три години живяла без мъж, слугувала в богаташка къща. Господата искали готвено три пъти на ден. Дърва изобщо не се палели – само въглища. От въглищата става жега непоносима, във въглищата тлеят огнени рози.

Три години жената готвела за господарите и се пазела от мъжете. Ама тези гърди топузи къде да ги дене, а? Хайде де!”
― Isaac Babel, Вдъхновение

“I imagined myself in the Jewish Self-Defence League,”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“There is no reason why a well thought-out story should resemble real life; life strives with all its might to resemble a well thought-out story.”
― Isaak Babel

“Life is rubbish,” he muttered. “The world’s a bordello. People are swindlers…”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“Вышла огромная ошибка, тётя Песя. Но разве со стороны бога не было ошибкой поселить евреев в России, чтобы они мучились, как в аду? И чем было бы плохо, если бы евреи жили в Швейцарии, где их окружали бы первоклассные озёра, гористый воздух и сплошные французы? Ошибаются все, даже бог”
― Isaac Babel, How It Was Done in Odessa

“Consider this: Could it be true that, in all Russian literature, there isn’t a single clear and joyous depiction of the sun?”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“Do you remember Zhitomir, Vasily? Do you remember the Teterev, Vasily, and that evening when the Sabbath, the young Sabbath tripped stealthily along the sunset, her little red heel treading on the stars?
THe slender horn of the moon bathed its arrows in the black waters of the Teterev. Funny little Gedali, founder of the Fourth International, was taking us to Rabbi Motele Bratzlavsky’s for evening service. Funny little Gedali swayed the cock’s feathers on his high hat in the red haze of the evening. The candes in the Rabbi’s room blinked their predatory eyes. Bent over prayer books, brawny Jews were moaning in muffled voices, and the old buffoon of the zaddiks of Chernobyl jingled coppers in his torn pocket...
...Do you remember that night, Vasily? Beyond the windows horses were neighing and Cossacks were shouting. The wilderness of war was yawning beyong the windows, and Robbi Motele Bratzslavsky was praying at the eastern wall, his decayed fingers clinging to his tales. (...)”
― Isaac Babel, Benya Krik, the Gangster and Other Stories

“Навън, около камбанарията кипеше черно подпухнало небе, мокрите къщи се бяха огънали и смалили. Над тях с мъка се палеха звездите, вятърът се стелеше ниско.
В антрето на къщата си Гапа чу монотонно мърморене, чужд пресипнал глас. На печката седеше, подвила под себе си крака, просякиня, влязла да пренощува. Алените нишки на лампите оплитаха ъгъла. В ошетаната къща беше просната тишина. От стените в преградките лъхаше на ферментирали ябълки.”
― Isaac Babel

“While some distance from the wide sea, smoke rises from factories and Karl Marx does his usual work.”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories

“Bolshoy Fontan (“Big Fountain”) is one of the largest and most popular coastal resort districts in Odessa.”
― Isaac Babel, Odessa Stories