Mark McLaughlin

“...one of the most important things when it comes to painting is being able to stop at the right time, to know when a picture is saying what it can say, if you keep going too long then more often than not the picture’ll be ruined...”
― Jon Fosse, I Is Another: Septology III-V

“An intellectual, once imprisoned, is crushed by the camp. Everything that used to be dear to him is trampled into the dust, and he sheds his civilization and culture in the shortest imaginable time, a matter of weeks.
In any discussion the main argument is a fist or a stick. The means of compulsion is a rifle butt or a punch in the mouth.
An intellectual turns into a coward, and his own brain suggests a justification for his actions. He can persuade himself of anything, he can take any side in an argument. The criminal world calls intellectuals "life teachers," fighters "for the people's rights."
A "slapping," a punch, is enough to turn an intellectual into the obedient servant of some thieving Senia or Kostia.
Physical influence becomes moral influence.
The intellectual becomes a permanently scared creature. His spirit is broken. Even when he gets back to life in freedom, he will still have this intimidated and broken spirit.”
― Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales

“I experienced pleasure like a future pain.”
― Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

“when I was growing up believed it, believed in the literal meaning of what they said, in God a father who lived up in the sky somewhere, who was all-powerful and who used that power to even exterminate millions of Jews, I think, but those who think of God like that are truly sinning, misusing God’s name, or maybe they’re not, they don’t know any better, and I shouldn’t judge them, because judge not lest ye be judged, as is written, but I can’t help it, I think it’s blasphemous to think like that, and the people who believe in the God they told us about when I was growing up in Barmen believe in a false idol, they’re misusing God’s name, pure and simple, and may God forgive them, and he does, for God’s grace is so all-encompassing”
― Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII