Andrei Makine Quotes & Sayings

Men can be pitiless towards a woman whose body has eluded them, particularly if this is thanks to their own cowardice. — Andrei Makine

This happiness rendered absurd men's desire to dominate, to kill, to possess, thought Volsky. For neither Mila nor he possessed anything. Their joy came from the things one does not possess, from what other people had abandoned or scorned. But, above all, this sunset, this scent of warm bark, these clouds above the young trees in the graveyard, these belonged to everybody! — Andrei Makine

Then, with all my being I felt I was wildly, desperately in love. Not only with Maya and her dark locks flying in the wind as she ran. But also with the plants that swayed as she passed, and with that grey, sad sky and the air that smelled of rain. I was even in love with that old piece of farm machinery with flat tyres, sensing that it was quite essential to the harmony that had just been created before my eyes ... — Andrei Makine

I have just awoken, having dreamed of music. The final chord fades away within me while I try to focus on individuals amid the living, breathing mass packed into this vast waiting room, in this mixture of sleep and weariness. — Andrei Makine

He should have told Vlad that in the old days a collection of poems could change your life, but a single poem could also cost the life of its author. — Andrei Makine

Their life will be made of the same stuff as this spring afternoon. — Andrei Makine

They did not speak, surprised to see how simple, almost poor, happiness could be, yes, materially poor and yet so abundant. — Andrei Makine

The though revives in him the oldest memory of his life. A child sees a door closing: without knowing who it is that has just left, he senses it is someone he loves with all his tiny, still mute being. — Andrei Makine

People speak because they are afraid of silence. They speak mechanically whether aloud or to themselves. They are intoxicated by this vocal gruel that ensnares every object and every being. They talk about rain and fine weather; they talk about money, about love, about nothing. And even when they are talking about their most exalted love, they use words uttered a hundred times, threadbare phrases. — Andrei Makine

That apple orchard is still in flower," I told myself. "Time has passed it by, leaving it behind in a moment that does not pass. An idea that seems as insane as the beauty of those flowering trees that will never bear fruit. But to believe in it gives a supreme meaning to our lives, our encounters, our loves."
Then I caught myself mentally addressing Kira, as on so many occasions during these last twenty years.
The truth is, I have never stopped walking beside her along an endless corridor lined with snow-clad boughts. — Andrei Makine

( ... ) the translator of prose is the slave of the author and the translator of poetry is his rival. — Andrei Makine

Volsky once more had the feeling that the bond between them was indifferent to the demise of bodies. — Andrei Makine

This sacrifice, which saved his life, reminded him again that the evil of this world could be put to rout by the will of a single human being. — Andrei Makine

The loudspeaker on the wall crackles, hisses, and suddenly announces, in astonishingly soothing tones, that a train is going to be delayed. An ocean swell of sighs ripples through the waiting room. — Andrei Makine

The fatal mistake we make is looking for a paradise that endures ... This obsession with what lasts causes us to overlook many a fleeting paradise. — Andrei Makine

She studies to be equal in a world that is no longer surprised at anything — Andrei Makine

An exile's only country is his country's literature. — Andrei Makine

Love is in essence subversive. — Andrei Makine

The life these words speak of is not worth the ink they are written in ... He now knows that the only words worth writing down arise when language is impossible. — Andrei Makine

Once again, without explaining anything, they understood that they must leave. Go away before this world woke up and continued with a life from which they were forever excluded. — Andrei Makine

Their own life together was like a subtle watercolor sketch, invisible to other people. They gave the world what it required of them and for the rest of the time were content to be forgotten. — Andrei Makine

He had already come to see human lives as one single communal life and it was perhaps this perception that gave him hope. — Andrei Makine

In war the most testing moments are those of peace , for a dead man lying in the grass makes the living see the world as it would be, but for their folly. — Andrei Makine

Historians rewrite the truth every day. What interests us is the truth that gets the reader to reach for his wallet — Andrei Makine