The alternative to the concept of life and death is the void. Would it really be better if this world didn’t exist at all? Instead, we live, make art, love, observe, suffer, laugh and are happy. We all exist in a million different ways so that there is no void, and the price we pay for that is death.

For a long time now I’d been able to tell from the set of her shoulders if she was tense; but the way she’d left the door ajar indicated that she wanted company. There was a familiarity between us that seemed infinite, like two mirrors reflecting one another.

Ich hatte den Tod ohnehin noch nicht verdient, ich konnte ihn doch gar nicht bezahlen, denn er kostete das Leben, und davon hatte ich noch viel zu wenig.

Even more than my siblings, I wondered to what extent the events of my childhood and adolescence had defined me, and it was only very late that I understood that I myself am the sole architect of my existence. This is what I am when I allow my past to influence me, and, conversely, just as much when I resist it.

As I walked into the garden, I nodded at my brother. A difficult childhood is like an invisible enemy, I thought. You never know when it will strike.

And as soon as someone developed feelings for her, she quickly rejected him. As if something inside her had shattered, and anyone who got too close to her cut themselves on the shards.

Het leven is geen nulsomspel. Het is ons niets verschuldigd en alles gaat zoals het gaat. Soms terecht, zodat alles zin lijkt te hebben, en soms zo onterecht dat je aan alles gaat twijfelen. Ik trok het masker van het gezicht van het lot af en vond daarachter alleen het toeval.

All these nihilists and cynics are really just cowards. They act as if everything’s meaningless because that means ultimately there’s nothing to lose. Their attitude seems unassailable and superior, but inside it’s worthless.

Memory is a patient gardener.

Er sah wieder weg und dachte daran, wie sie gesagt hatte, er solle sich keine Hoffnungen machen und sich nicht in sie verlieben. Und wie sollte das gehen?