All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.
YANN MARTELQuickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.
More Yann Martel Quotes
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Zoo is an artificial territory, an approximation. Civilization is our natural territory.
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First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.
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If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn’t love hard to believe?
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Stories–individual stories, family stories, national stories–are what stitch together the disparate elements of human existence into a coherent whole. We are story animals.
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Once you’ve been struck by violence, you acquire companions that never leave you entirely: Suspicion, Fear, Anxiety, Despair, Joylessness. The natural smile is taken from you and the natural pleasures you once enjoyed lose their appeal.
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I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me.
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I have read that there are two fears that cannot be trained out of us: the startle reaction upon hearing an unexpected noise, and vertigo.
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Afterwards, when it’s all over, you meet God. What do you say to God?
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Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed.
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War subjects itself to transportation in a way that we find acceptable.
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If you don’t have dreams, how do you maneuver reality? Where do you get the ideas to change reality if not from dreams?
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science can only take you so far and then you have to leap
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In art, something comes of nothing. Out of the thin air and the ether, you create a story. And that is intensely satisfying.
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I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare.
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It’s amazing how willpower can build walls.
YANN MARTEL