The 29+ Elfriede Jelinek Quotes

I Cannot Stand Public Attention, I Just Can't. Of Course, If I May I Might Write Something Instead

He Lies Like A Book. And He Reads A Lot Of Books.

I Have The Feeling It Will Influence My Future Writing To The Extent That Without Any Material Worries I Could Develop A Greater Ease, Even Lightheartedness, In My Writing

I Do Not Want To Have The Feeling Of Writing "for Eternity," So To Speak.

Work Restores Humankind And All Its Attributes To The Savage Animal Condition That Was Its Original Intended State.

You Have Often Seen In The Cinema, Erich, Haven't You, That Between Extraordinary People Extraordinary Things Like For Example Extraordinary Love Can Arise. So We Only Have To Be Extraordinary And See What Happens.

I Think Isolation Is One Of The Greatest Problems, An Ever-growing Obstacle To Political Solidarity.

Anna Despises Two Classes Of People: First, Those Who Own Their Own Homes And Have Cars And Families, And Second, Everybody Else. Constantly She Is On The Verge Of Exploding. With Rage. A Pool Of Pure Red. The Pool Is Filled With Speechlessness That Talks Away At Her Nonstop.

Literature That Keeps Employing New Linguistic And Formal Modes Of Expression To Draft A Panorama Of Society As A Whole While At The Same Time Exposing It, Tearing The Masks From Its Face - For Me That Would Be Deserving Of An Award.

Characters On Stage Should Be Flat, Like Clothes In A Fashion Show: What You Get Should Be No More Than What You See. Psychological Realism Is Repulsive, Because It Allows Us To Escape Unpalatable Reality By Taking Shelter In The “luxuriousness” Of Personality, Losing Ourselves In The Depth Of Individual Character. The Writer's Task Is To Block This Manoeuvre, To Chase Us Off To A Point From Which We Can View The Horror With A Dispassionate Eye.

Women Age Early, And Their Mistake Is Not Knowing Where To Hide All The Time That Lies Behind Them So That No One Sees It. What Are They To Do, Devour It Like The Umbilical Cords Of Their Children? Hell And Damnation!

It Could Draw From A Greater Reservoir Of Freedom. The Irony Could Develop An Even Greater Ease.