Peter Handke

“A fine thing: suddenly to forget about one’s history, one’s past, to stop feeling that one’s present happiness is endangered by what one used to be.”

“My way of thinking is often so wrong, so untenable, because I think as if I were talking to someone else.”

“The main thing:... not to let myself be defined by history, not to take it as an excuse—despise it in those who hide their personal insignificance behind it—and yet know it, in order to understand people and above all to see through them (my hatred of history as a refuge for be-nothings).”

“I was angry at her for not being what I wanted.”

“Tense, unnerved, and close to madness before writing—and when I read what I’ve written it looks so calm.”

“Proud of my near-madness, as if I had attained a goal.”

“There are many kinds of truth. But truth communicated by beauty is the only pure one. The only one that touches me in the heart.”