My response, a dubious and hesitant one, is that it has been and may continue to be, in the time that is left to me, more productive to live out the question than to try to answer it in abstract terms. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
There is nothing more inimical to writing than the spirit of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism abhors the play of signs, the endlessness of writing. Fundamentalism means nothing more or less than going back to an origin and staying there. It stands for one founding book and, thereafter, no more books. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
As you see, I do not treat the creation of fiction, that to say the invention and development of fantasies, as a form of abstract thought. I don’t wish to deny the uses of the intellect, but sometimes one has the intuition that the intellect by itself will lead one nowhere. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don’t read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say? J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote