Herta Müller Quotes (1953-)

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

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

“How can you face the world if all you can say about yourself is that you're hungry. If you can't think of anything else.”

“There (Kaschau) the mountains stare down through our heads until we die.”

“I don't know if I can't sleep because I am trying to recall the objects, or whether I struggle to recall them because I can't sleep.”

“I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.”

“The time for eating otrach orach is over. But not the hunger, which is always greater than we are.”

“If you don't have the right things, you improvise. the wrong things become necessary. Then the necessary things turn out to be the only right things, simply because they're what you have.”

“Perhaps we had to stand so long as to stop the time in motion. Our bones became heavy as iron. When the flesh on your body disappears,your bones become a burden, and the ground pulls you down.”

“The war was still on in January 1945. In their dismay at my being shipped off in the dead of winter to who knows where in Russia, everyone wanted to give me something that might be of use, even if it couldn't be help. Because nothing in the world could possible help.”

“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.”

“You can't rearrange freshly fallen snow, you can't fix snow so it looks untouched. You can rework earth, and sand and even grass if you try hard enough. Water takes care of itself, because it swallows everything and flows back together once it's done swallowing. And air is always in place because you can't see it. Everything but snow would have kept quiet.”

“Riding somewhere was always a happy thing. First of all: as long as you're moving, you haven't arrived. As long as you haven't arrived, you don't have to work. Riding in truck gives you time to recover. Second: when you ride, you come to some place that couldn't care less about you. you can't be yelled at or beaten by a tree. Under a tree, yes but the tree can't help that.”

“Welt, Welt, Schwester Welt
Wann hab ich dich satt
Wenn mein Brot mir trocken ist
Das Glas mich in der Hand vergisst
Wenn das Sargbrett schlägt um mich
Vielleicht dann hab ich dich satt
...
Wer geboren ist, verzweifelt
Wer gestorben ist, verrottet.
 World world sister world
 When shall I tire of you.
 When my bread is dry
 When my hand forgets my glass
 When the coffin’s boxed me in
 Maybe that’s when I’ll be tired of you.
 ...
 Living is despairing
 And the dead they rot away”