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You go out for a walk and the world opens up for you. And before you’ve even stretched your legs properly, it closes shut. For here to there it’s all just the farty sputter of lantern. And they call that having lived. It’s not worth the bother of putting on your shoes.

— Herta Müller The Appointment (1997)

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More quotes by Herta Müller

The real secret is why love starts out with claws like a cat and then fades with time like a half-eaten mouse.

The Appointment (1997)

There’s an unspoken law that you should never start to cry if you have too many reasons to do so.

The Hunger Angel (2012)

A lot of people think packing a suitcase is something you learn through practice, like singing or praying.

The Hunger Angel (2012)

No novels, since you just read them once and never again.

The Hunger Angel (2012)

Being a stranger is hard, but being a stranger when you're so impossibly close is unbearable.

The Hunger Angel (2012)

All Herta Müller quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Herta Müller (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.