Ersatz Quotes

“Here was happiness; not my drum, to be sure, just an ersatz, but there is also a thing as ersatz happiness, perhaps happiness exists only as an ersatz, perhaps all happiness is an ersatz for happiness.”
― Günter Grass, The Tin Drum

“Here was happiness; not my drum, to be sure, just an ersatz, but there is also a thing as arsatz happiness, perhaps happiness is an ersatz for happiness.”
― Günter Grass, The Tin Drum

“Plastics. Polyesters. Resins. Ersatz—industrial uses. Do you see? No consumers’ commodities.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

“The world was ersatz and actual, forged and faked, by ourselves and unseen others. Daring to attempt to absolutely sort fake from real was a folly that would call down tigers or hiccups to cure us of our recklessness. The effort was doomed, for it too much pointed past the intimate boundaries of our necessary fictions.”
― Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City