Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.
YANN MARTELHe’s a shy man. Life has taught him not to show off what is most precious to him.
More Yann Martel Quotes
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How long does it take for a broken spirit to kill a body that has food, water and shelter?
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I go to mass every Sunday, but love going to mosques too. Muslims pray in a beautiful way.
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A zoo is not an ideal place for an animal – of course the best place for a chimp is the wilds of Tanzania – but a good zoo is a decent, acceptable place.
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War subjects itself to transportation in a way that we find acceptable.
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Christianity is a religion in a rush.
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Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? Love.
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To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing–I’m sorry, I would rather not go on.
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If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it you would be amazed at the animals that fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants, in untold numbers.
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Artists invent things as a way of telling the truth.
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Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness–how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view of things? This peephole is all I’ve got!
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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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You can get used to anything – haven’t I already said that? Isn’t that what all survivors say?
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The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.
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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.
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Much hostile and aggressive behaviour among animals is the expression of social insecurity.
YANN MARTEL