Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera
Milan Kunderais a Czech-born writer who went into exile in France in 1975, and became a naturalised French citizen in 1981. He "sees himself as a French writer and insists his work should be studied as French literature and classified as such in book stores"...
NationalityCzechoslovakian
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth1 April 1929
women pride rebel
To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.
self long hatred
Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself? To what degree of distortion does a beloved person still remain a beloved person? For how long does a cherished face growing remote through illness, through madness, through hatred, through death still remain recognizable? Where is the border beyond which a self ceases to be a self?
girl men way
The young man called the waiter and paid. Then he got up and said to the girl: 'We're going.' Where to?' The girl feigned surprise. Don't ask, just come on,' said the young man. Is that any way to talk to me?' It's the way I talk to whores.
games lovers rules-of-the-game
All lovers unconsciously establish their own rules of the game, which from the outset admit of no transgression.
character meditation existence
The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters.
years knowing decision
Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by the power of inertia. Every year it gets harder to change.
hurt book men
She regarded books as the emblems of secret brotherhood. A man with this sort of library couldn't possibly hurt her.
long forgive-me forgiving
Forgive me," he went on. "For a long time I have had the peculiar habit of not arriving but appearing.
dog couple men
given the nature of the human couple, the love of a man and a woman is a priori inferior to that which can exist (at least in the best instances) in the love between man and dog...It is a completely selfless love.
cutting tests unbearable
Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short.
attitude men historical
Our historical experience teaches us that men imitate one another, that their attitudes are statistically calculable, their opinions manipulable, and that man is therefore less an individual (a subject) than an element in a mass.
hate common
I cannot hate them because nothing binds me to them; I have nothing in common with them.
sacrifice broken today
Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.
views wife sides
When his wife was at his side, she was also in front of him, marking out the horizon of his life. Now the horizon is empty: the view has changed.