Witold Gombrowicz
Witold Gombrowicz
Witold Marian Gombrowiczwas a Polish writer. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937 he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: the problems of immaturity and youth, the creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture. He gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 August 1904
CountryPoland
Great poetry must be admired, because it is great and because it is poetry, and so we admire it.
A universal style is one that knows how to embrace lovingly those not quite developed.
When one does not have what one wants, one must want what one has”: “I have had, you see, to resort more and more to very small, almost invisible pleasures, little extras. You've no idea how great one becomes with these little details, it's incredible how one grows.
Our element is unending immaturity.
We say 'forest' but this word is made of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the unencompassed. The earth. Clods of dirt. Pebbles. On a clear day you rest among ordinary, everyday things that have been familiar to you since childhood, grass, bushes, a dog (or a cat), a chair, but that changes when you realize that every object is an enormous army, an inexhaustible swarm.
The difference between western and eastern intellectuals is that the former have not been kicked in the ass enough.
Wherever I see some mystique, be it virtue or family, faith or fatherland, there I must commit some indecent act.
To contradict, even in little matters, is the supreme necessity of art today.
I am reading Sienkiewicz. What tormenting reading. What a powerful genius! And there never was such a first-rate writer of the second-rate class.
I didn't go to the lectures. My valet, who was more distinguished than I, went instead.
Foolishness is a twin sister of wisdom.
To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage.
Man is profoundly dependent on the reflection of himself in another man's soul, be it even the soul of an idiot.
I became bold because I had absolutely nothing to lose: neither honors, nor earnings, nor friends. I had to find myself anew and rely only on myself, because I could rely on no one else. My form is my solitude.