26 Gunter Grass Quotes for You to Enjoy

Gunter Grass

German Author

Born: Oct 16, 1927

Died: Apr 13, 2015

Art Life Me Time Writing You

Related authors: Berthold Auerbach Cornelia Funke Eckhart Tolle Franz Werfel Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hugo Ball Jean Paul Karl Philipp Moritz

People change with time. There are things that happened to a person in his childhood and years later they seem to him alien and strange. I am trying to decipher that child. Sometimes he is a stranger to me. When you think about when you were 14, don't you feel a certain alienation? Gunter Grass

Time Me You Change Strange People Sometimes Alien People Change Think Alienation Later About Seem He Feel Him Am Were His Years Child Person Trying Childhood Happened Decipher Certain Stranger Things

If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle - absolute busyness - then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy - and without consciousness. Gunter Grass

Prose, poetry, and drawings stand side by side in a very democratic way in my work. Gunter Grass

Work Side Way Drawings Poetry Prose Democratic Very Stand

For me, writing, drawing, and political activism are three separate pursuits; each has its own intensity. I happen to be especially attuned to and engaged with the society in which I live. Both my writing and my drawing are invariably mixed up with politics, whether I want them to be or not. Gunter Grass

Politics Me Writing Political Three Own Live Society Drawing Invariably Both Pursuits Attuned Mixed Up Intensity Want Happen Whether Which Them Separate Engaged Each Activism

Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand. Gunter Grass

Art Puritan Pointless Understand Same Irrational Wonderfully Hard Necessary

It is a wonderful thing in the process of writing when such paper characters are first sketched, and, when one is doing good work, from a certain point in time they come alive and start contradicting the author as well. Gunter Grass

I remember when I was writing 'The Tin Drum,' I had the totally misguided idea of giving Oskar Matzerath a sister, and he just wouldn't have it. There was no space for a sister, yet I had the character of the sister in my head. In fact I used her in later novels, in 'Cat and Mouse' and 'Dog Years,' Tulla Pokriski. Gunter Grass

Character Writing Dog Remember Space Giving Sister Later Totally Fact Cat Misguided Had He Remember When Head Idea Drum Years Tin Mouse Just In Fact Used Novels Her

I've always been surrounded by children - never bothered by their noise. Gunter Grass

Noise Bothered Never Always Been Surrounded Children

We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place. Gunter Grass

Future Statistics Overpopulation Pollution Place Growth

I catch myself judging myself as that 13-year-old boy, who, of course, rightfully points out that he is only a child. And my membership - well, I was drafted into the Waffen-SS and didn't exactly volunteer, which was just as idiotic. I wanted to be on the submarines and then ended up with the Waffen-SS. Gunter Grass

Myself Rightfully Out Membership Exactly Only Points He Volunteer Catch Well Course Judging Idiotic Boy Up Child Ended Just Wanted Which Then Who Drafted

My relationship with Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm reaches far back into my childhood. I grew up with Grimm's fairy tales. I even saw a theater production of 'Tom Thumb' during Advent at the State Theater in Danzig, which my mother took me to see. Gunter Grass

I have heard my fill of hurtful words. I think it's especially egregious when citizens like me, who point out abuses in their country, are referred to as 'do-gooders.' This is how a phrase that can be used to stop an argument dead becomes part of common usage. Gunter Grass

Me Words Argument Country Think Out Citizens Phrase Hurtful Point Part Abuse Like Dead Becomes How Heard Referred Stop Common Usage Used Who Fill

My sister and I did not have our own rooms, or even a place to ourselves. In the living room, beyond the two windows, was a little corner where my books were kept, and other thing - my watercolors and so on. Often I had to imagine the things I needed. I learned very early to read amidst noise. Gunter Grass

Noise Sister Own Living Other Corner Our Books Ourselves Windows Had Beyond Read Learned Were Very Did Often Where Place Little Room Rooms Even Amidst Thing Things Living Room Early Kept Two Imagine Needed Watercolors

Melancholy has ceased to be an individual phenomenon, an exception. It has become the class privilege of the wage earner, a mass state of mind that finds its cause wherever life is governed by production quotas. Gunter Grass

Life Class Cause Mind Become Earner State Melancholy Finds Exception Individual Mass Wage Governed Privilege Wherever Production Phenomenon

Even bad books are books and therefore sacred. Gunter Grass

Books Bad Sacred Therefore Even

What I do is sometimes - at least in Germany - met with wounding campaigns. I always face the question: should I grow myself a thick skin and ignore it, or should I let myself be wounded? I've decided to be wounded, since, if I grew a thick skin, there are other things I wouldn't feel any more. Gunter Grass

Myself Sometimes Face Met Skin Other Wounded Wounding More Feel Since Always Least Question Campaigns Germany Any Grew Decided Should Ignore Grow Thick Thick Skin Things

Lies that do not hurt, which are different from lies that protect oneself or hurt another person. That is not my business. But the truth is mostly very boring, and you can help it along with lies. There is no harm in that. Gunter Grass

Truth You Business Hurt Truth Is Lies Boring Oneself Along Protect Mostly Another Very Person Different Which Help Harm

I don't believe in writing at night because it comes too easily. When I read it in the morning it's not good. I need daylight to begin. Between nine and ten o'clock I have a long breakfast with reading and music. Gunter Grass

Everybody knows how fallible memory can sometimes be. You remember certain fragments precisely, but as soon as you try to join the fragments together, for a story, there is a certain - not falsification, but a shifting. Gunter Grass

You Together Memory Sometimes Remember Try Shifting Everybody Fragments Join Soon Knows How Fallible Precisely Story Certain

Auschwitz speaks against even a right to self-determination that is enjoyed by all other peoples because one of the preconditions for the horror, besides other, older urges, was a strong and united Germany. Gunter Grass

People Strong Older Other Besides Horror Self-Determination Because Auschwitz Germany Against Urges Speaks Even United Right Enjoyed

A writer must face up to the test of reality, including political reality, and that can't be done if he keeps his distance. A literary style cultivated like a hothouse plant may show a certain artificial purity, but it won't really be pure. Gunter Grass

Reality Political Plant Pure Face Style Distance Must Purity Writer He Like Test Cultivated His Up Artificial Done May Literary Really Certain Show Including Keeps

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