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
life outline quite rehearsal sketch whereas worth
We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always a sketch. No sketch is not quite the right word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch of nothing, an outline with no picture.
almost discreet incapable life speaking states
I am incapable of speaking of myself and of my life and the states of my soul, I am discreet to an almost pathological degree, and there is nothing I can do against that.
unhappy-person unbearable life-is
A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.
life mean decision
There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, "sketch" is not quite a word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture.
men situations-in-life return
Only the basic situations in life occur only once, never to return. For a man to be a man, he must be fully aware of this never-to-return. (p.148)
lying bed former-life
He Kept recalling her lying on his bed; she reminded him of no one in his former life.
courage law coincidence-in-life
Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.
order longing life-is
The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order.
life understanding age
Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.
ambition form lifelong
My lifelong ambition has been to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form.
life might unbearable-lightness-of-being
Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.
men sad-life gentleman
Ah, ladies and gentlemen, a man lives a sad life when he cannot take anything or anyone seriously.
accused bed breakfast bring brought careful dangerous unless
O lovers! Be careful in those dangerous first days! Once youve brought breakfast in bed youll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal.
basic born characters containing equally fond horrified human image novels
This is the image from which he was born...... Characters are not born, like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor, containing in a nutshell a basic human possibility......the characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them and equally horrified by them......