I don’t have a clear biography of my own that I could recount in an interesting way. I’m made up of the characters that I pulled out of my head, that I invented. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
From death’s perspective, there are no differences between people; there are no presidents or flight attendants, no faiths or nations. There is just the person, always dear. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
But sometimes I fear that the people of my country can unite only beside victims’ bodies, over coffins and in cemeteries. Like tribesmen who dance around old totems, we ignore the living and can only appreciate the dead. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
I dream of Poland becoming a modern society that is defined not by the crippling nature of history, but by our individual achievements, a sense of our own self-worth and ideas for the future. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
I would like to say to my friends in Poland: Let’s make good choices, vote for democracy. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
We invented a history of Poland as a tolerant, open country, a country that has not been tainted by any atrocities committed against its minorities. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
I believe in literature which ties people together, that highlights what people have in common, despite the differences – color, sexual orientation, or anything which may separate us on the surface. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
I believe in a kind of literature which makes clear that, at a deeper level, below the surface, we are tied together through invisible but existing threads. A kind of literature which talks about a lively, ever-changing world of unity, of which we are a small, but not insignificant part. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote
Novels can change attitudes. Maybe we should speak quietly otherwise politicians will use novels as propaganda. Olga Tokarczuk Read Quote