karoline steinfatt > karoline's Quotes

“For a while, Criticism travels side by side with the Work, then Criticism vanishes and it's the Readers who keep pace. The journey may be long or short. Then the Readers die one by one and the Work continues on alone, although a new Criticism and new Readers gradually fall into step with it along its path. Then Criticism dies again and the Readers die again and the Work passes over a trail of bones on its journey toward solitude. To come near the work, to sail in her wake, is a sign of certain death, but new Criticism and new Readers approach her tirelessly and relentlessly and are devoured by time and speed. Finally the Work journeys irremediably alone in the Great Vastness. And one day the Work dies, as all things must die and come to an end: the Sun and the Earth and the Solar System and the Galaxy and the farthest reaches of man's memory. Everything that begins as comedy ends in tragedy.”
― Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives

“We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?”
― Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market and Other Poems

“J'ai tendu des cordes de clocher a clocher; des guirlandes de fenetre a fenetre; des chaines d'or d'etoile a etoile, et je danse.”
― Rimbaud

“The first rule of translation: make sure you know at least one of the bloody languages!”
― Faiz Ahmed Faiz

“Speak

Speak, your lips are free.
Speak, it is your own tongue.
Speak, it is your own body.
Speak, your life is still yours.

See how in the blacksmith's shop
The flame burns wild, the iron glows red;
The locks open their jaws,
And every chain begins to break.

Speak, this brief hour is long enough
Before the death of body and tongue:
Speak, 'cause the truth is not dead yet,
Speak, speak, whatever you must speak.”
― Faiz Ahmad Faiz

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.”
― Sun Tzu

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
― Antonio Gramsci