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W. G. Sebald Quotes
W. G. Sebald Quotes
W. G. Sebald
German
Writer
Born:
May 18
,
1944
Died:
Dec 14
,
2001
Always
Memory
People
Time
Writing
You
Related authors:
Anne Frank
Erich Auerbach
Erich Maria Remarque
Heinrich Boll
Ludwig Borne
Michael Ende
Thomas Mann
Walter Anderson
I've always felt that the traditional novel doesn't give you enough information about the narrator, and I think it's important to know the point of view from which these tales are told: the moral makeup of the teller.
W. G. Sebald
You
Important
Think
Enough
Teller
Moral
About
Give
Point
Point Of View
Tales
Know
Felt
Makeup
Always
Narrator
Traditional
Information
Which
View
Novel
Unlike Conrad or Nabokov, I didn't have circumstances which would have coerced me out of my native tongue altogether.
W. G. Sebald
Me
Unlike
Circumstances
Out
Would
Altogether
Native
Which
Tongue
In the history of postwar German writing, for the first 15 or 20 years, people avoided mentioning political persecution - the incarceration and systematic extermination of whole peoples and groups in society. Then, from 1965, this became a preoccupation of writers - not always in an acceptable form.
W. G. Sebald
History
People
Writing
Political
First
Society
Systematic
Postwar
Writers
Acceptable
Became
Always
Years
Persecution
German
The History Of
Form
Then
Incarceration
Avoided
Preoccupation
Whole
Groups
Extermination
It must be extremely uncomfortable to live with a writer - all that preoccupation and brooding.
W. G. Sebald
Live
Extremely
Must
Brooding
Uncomfortable
Writer
Preoccupation
If you're based in two places, on a bad day you see only the disadvantages everywhere. On a bad day, returning to Germany brings back all kinds of spectres from the past.
W. G. Sebald
Day
You
Bad Day
Past
Back
Everywhere
Bad
Kinds
See
Only
Disadvantages
Returning
Germany
Places
Based
Brings
Two
England is not very easy to get in and out of.
W. G. Sebald
Out
Easy
Very
Get
England
My father was not really a presence for me. He was away; he was in the German army.
W. G. Sebald
Me
Army
Father
He
German
Really
Away
Presence
I cannot get over the fact that I was born in 1944. I want to find out as much as I can about that year.
W. G. Sebald
Year
Out
Find
Born
About
Fact
Over
Get
Want
Cannot
Much
My texts are written like palimpsests. They are written over and over again, until I feel that a kind of metaphysical meaning can be read through the writing.
W. G. Sebald
Writing
Kind
Through
Written
Feel
Over
Like
Until
Read
Metaphysical
Texts
Again
Meaning
Mine is a European imagination, shaped largely by my very promiscuous reading in German, French, English and, with greater difficulty, Italian.
W. G. Sebald
Reading
Imagination
Difficulty
Mine
Promiscuous
Shaped
French
Greater
Italian
German
Very
English
European
Largely
It is a sore point, because you do have advantages if you have access to more than one language. You also have problems, because on bad days you don't trust yourself, either in your first or your second language, and so you feel like a complete halfwit.
W. G. Sebald
You
Trust
Yourself
Problems
Language
First
Complete
Bad
Bad Days
More
Point
Advantages
Feel
Days
Like
Also
Sore
Because
Access
Than
Either
Your
Second
I've always been interested in photographs, collecting them not systematically but randomly. They get lost, then turn up again.
W. G. Sebald
Lost
Randomly
Systematically
Collecting
Photographs
Always
Been
Up
Get
Again
Interested
Them
Turn
Then
Where I grew up, in a remote village at the back of a valley, the old still thought the dead needed attending to - a notion so universal, it's enscribed in all religions. If you didn't, they might exact revenge upon the living.
W. G. Sebald
You
Revenge
Old
Thought
Living
Back
Valley
All Religions
Exact
Religions
Attending
Remote
Dead
Still
Up
Where
Grew
Might
Notion
Village
Universal
Needed
Although I hold a German passport, I feel very much alienated when I'm there.
W. G. Sebald
Alienated
Feel
Although
Passport
German
Very
Hold
Much
I came from anonymity, and I will continue to write as a private pursuit.
W. G. Sebald
Will
Pursuit
Write
Anonymity
Came
Private
Continue
The moral backbone of literature is about that whole question of memory. To my mind it seems clear that those who have no memory have the much greater chance to lead happy lives.
W. G. Sebald
Happy
Memory
Mind
Backbone
Those
Moral
About
Seems
No Memory
Lead
Clear
Greater
Question
Literature
Much
Who
Whole
Lives
Chance
Places seem to me to have some kind of memory, in that they activate memory in those who look at them.
W. G. Sebald
Me
Memory
Those
Kind
Some
Seem
Look
Places
Them
Who
Activate
I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business.
W. G. Sebald
Business
Way
Through
Read
Always
Very
Laborious
Translator
Draft
Occasionally I write a small piece or the odd lecture in English, and I teach in English, but my fiction is always written in German.
W. G. Sebald
Small
Write
Small Piece
Written
Piece
Occasionally
Always
Odd
Lecture
German
Fiction
Teach
English
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