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Top 160 J. M. Coetzee Quotes (2025 Update)
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J. M. Coetzee Quote: “If he has a last thought, if there is time for a last thought, it will simply be, So this is what a last thought is like.”

151. “If he has a last thought, if there is time for a last thought, it will simply be, So this is what a last thought is like.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Suicide, I had understood, is an act not of body against itself but of the will against the body.”

152. “Suicide, I had understood, is an act not of body against itself but of the will against the body.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Empire as located its existence not in the smooth recurrent spinning time of the cycle of the seasons but in the jagged time of rise and fall, of beginning and end, of catastrophe.”

153. “Empire as located its existence not in the smooth recurrent spinning time of the cycle of the seasons but in the jagged time of rise and fall, of beginning and end, of catastrophe.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “The sun is setting, the sky is a tumult of oranges, reds and violets.”

154. “The sun is setting, the sky is a tumult of oranges, reds and violets.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Do you think what happened here was an exam: if you come through, you get a diploma and safe conduct into the future, or a sign to paint on the door-lintel that will make the plague pass you by?”

155. “Do you think what happened here was an exam: if you come through, you get a diploma and safe conduct into the future, or a sign to paint on the door-lintel that will make the plague pass you by?”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “But two and two do equal four. Unless you give some strange, special meaning to equal. You can count it off for yourself: one two three four. If two and two really equalled three then everything would collapse into chaos. We would be in another universe, with other physical laws. In the existing universe two and two equal four. It is a universal rule, independent of us, not man-made at all. Even if you and I were to cease to be, two and two would go on equalling four.”

156. “But two and two do equal four. Unless you give some strange, special meaning to equal. You can count it off for yourself: one two three four. If two and two really equalled three then everything would collapse into chaos. We would be in another universe, with other physical laws. In the existing universe two and two equal four. It is a universal rule, independent of us, not man-made at all. Even if you and I were to cease to be, two and two would go on equalling four.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Without desire how is it possible to make a story?”

157. “Without desire how is it possible to make a story?”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction.”

158. “I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “It was no longer a matter of growing a fat crop, only of growing enough for the seed not to die out. There will be another year, he consoled himself, another summer in which to try again.”

159. “It was no longer a matter of growing a fat crop, only of growing enough for the seed not to die out. There will be another year, he consoled himself, another summer in which to try again.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Let it at the very least be said, if it ever comes to be said, if there is ever anyone in some remote future interested to know the way we lived, that in this farthest outpost of the Empire of light there existed one man who in his heart was not a barbarian.”

160. “Let it at the very least be said, if it ever comes to be said, if there is ever anyone in some remote future interested to know the way we lived, that in this farthest outpost of the Empire of light there existed one man who in his heart was not a barbarian.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “But then, what are books for if not to change our lives?”

161. “But then, what are books for if not to change our lives?”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “This is what it leads to! This is what it leads to if you let your attention wander for a moment!”

162. “This is what it leads to! This is what it leads to if you let your attention wander for a moment!”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “The humanities the core of the university. She may be an outsider, but if she were asked to name the core of the university today, its core discipline, she would say it was moneymaking. That is how it looks from Melbourne, Victoria; and she would not be surprised if the same were the case in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

163. “The humanities the core of the university. She may be an outsider, but if she were asked to name the core of the university today, its core discipline, she would say it was moneymaking. That is how it looks from Melbourne, Victoria; and she would not be surprised if the same were the case in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.”

164. “I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “I stood listening to the night breeze rustle the leaves, and watched the bats flicker against the last light, and felt the sweeping melancholy of those who pass their days in the midst of insupportable beauty in the knowledge that one day they will die.”

165. “I stood listening to the night breeze rustle the leaves, and watched the bats flicker against the last light, and felt the sweeping melancholy of those who pass their days in the midst of insupportable beauty in the knowledge that one day they will die.”

— J. M. Coetzee

166. “If I were pressed to give my brand of political thought a label, I would call it pessimistic anarchistic quietism, or anarchistic quietistic pessimism or pessimistic quietistic anarchism: anarchism because experience tells me that what is wrong with politics is power itself; quietism because I have my doubts about the will to set about changing the world, a will infected with the drive to power; and pessimism because I am sceptical that, in a fundamental way, things can be changed.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “I am now no more than a pile of blood, bone and meat that is unhappy.”

167. “I am now no more than a pile of blood, bone and meat that is unhappy.”

— J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee Quote: “Technically he is old enough to be her father; but then, technically one can be a father at twelve.”

168. “Technically he is old enough to be her father; but then, technically one can be a father at twelve.”

— J. M. Coetzee

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