A Quote by Imre Kertesz

When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over.

Imre Kertesz

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About Auschwitz Begins Black Certain Cheap Excuse Expression Know Least Literature Must Novel Only Over Sense Serial Should Still Suspended Which Write

Quote Author

Imre Kertesz
Hungarian - Author
November 9, 1929 - March 31, 2016

We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and - to our benefit! - has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, 'Now we finally know ourselves.'

Gunter Grass

There is no answer to Auschwitz...To try to answer is to commit a supreme blasphemy. Israel enables us to bear the agony of Auschwitz without radical despair, to sense a ray of God's radiance in the jungles of history.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

At Auschwitz, not only man died, but also the idea of man. To live in a world where there is nothing anymore, where the executioner acts as god, as judge-many wanted no part of it. It was its own heart the world incinerated at Auschwitz.

Elie Wiesel

I had an awful joke about Auschwitz I drove everybody crazy with that joke. But that joke makes me feel good. You know what "cuit" means? When something is cooked. It's a joke like that: "What are the birds doing when they fly over Auschwitz? 'Cuit! Cuit!'" It's awful, but it's desacralizing. For me, it's good.

Chantal Akerman

You have to understand that I'm a child of the second generation, which means my mother was in Auschwitz, and the aunt of my mother was in Auschwitz with her; my grandmother and grandfather died there. So yes. All of those gestures they work for you, or for them, to fill their time or not feel their anxiety. But the child feels everything. It doesn't make the child secure. You put the child in a jail.

Chantal Akerman

For me, one of the most interesting columns to write was about Dick Cheney when he represented the U.S. at a commemorative ceremony at Auschwitz.

Robin Givhan

It is barbaric to write poetry after Auschwitz.

Theodor Adorno

Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.

Theodor Adorno

Auschwitz will forever remain the black hole of the entire human history.

Isaac Herzog

I know that elections must be limited only to those who understand that the Arabs are the deadly enemy of the Jewish state, who would bring on us a slow Auschwitz - not with gas, but with knives and hatchets.

Meir Kahane

What I've learned about comedy people is that they're defined by the harshest level they've been to, their personal Auschwitz.

Bob Saget

Auschwitz is a place in which tragedy cannot occur.

Edward Bond

When I was taken to the concentration camp of Auschwitz, a manuscript of mine ready for publication was confiscated. Certainly, my deep desire to write this manuscript anew helped me to survive the rigors of the camps I was in.