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There is nothing to link me with torturers, people who sit waiting like beetles in dark cellars.

— J. M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)

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More quotes by J. M. Coetzee

But why should people with nowhere to go run away from the nice life we've got here?

Life & Times of Michael K (1983)

He is here, with her, out of love. *He cannot imagine her getting through this trial without him at her side.”

Elizabeth Costello (2003)

Can't you tell the difference between a thin man and a skeleton?

Life & Times of Michael K (1983)

She inhabits her characters as a woman does, not a man.

Elizabeth Costello (2003)

Truly the world should belong to singers and dancers.

Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)

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