Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat wearing Muslims.
YANN MARTELThere are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God… These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside.
More Yann Martel Quotes
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He’s a shy man. Life has taught him not to show off what is most precious to him.
YANN MARTEL -
The dorado did the most extraordinary thing as it died: it began to flash all kinds of colours in rapid succession. Blue, green, red, gold, and violet flickered and shimmered neon-like on its surface as it struggled. I felt I was beating a rainbow to death.
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I have a fierce will to live. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others – and I am one of those – never give up. We fight and fight and fight.
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My gratitude to him is as boundless as the Pacific ocean.
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I spent more hours than I can count a quiet witness to the highly mannered, manifold expressions of life that grace our planet. It is something so bright, loud, weird and delicate as to stupefy the senses.
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You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it wont be for long.
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I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he’s not careful.
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I have a story that will make you believe in God.
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I ask you, is it the fig tree’s fault that it’s not the season for figs? What kind of thing is that to do to an innocent tree, wither it instantly?
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That’s what fiction is about, isn’t it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?
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How true is that necessity is the mother of invention, how very true.
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It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go.
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Afterwards, when it’s all over, you meet God. What do you say to God?
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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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The presence of God is the finest of rewards.
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The language of prose is very different than the language of cinema, so the movie has to successfully translate what was in the book.
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We think we live in a global village. We don’t. The world is a big and beautiful and incredibly varied place. It can only be known locally, with your two feet on the ground. We should stick to our own gardens, as Voltaire said.
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First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.
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Everything was screaming: the sea, the wind, my heart.
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I chose the name Pi because it’s an irrational number (one with no discernable pattern). Yet scientists use this irrational number to come to a “rational” understanding of the universe. To me, religion is a bit like that, “irrational” yet with it we come together we come to a sound understanding of the universe.
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There is no doubt in my mind that that feral giraffes and feral hippos have been living in Tokyo for generations without seeing a soul.
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A realization that the founding principle of existence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably.
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It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire.
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At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.
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Zoo is an artificial territory, an approximation. Civilization is our natural territory.
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There are animals we haven’t stopped by. Don’t think they’re harmless. Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.
YANN MARTEL