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Now time has a very different look it is no longer the conquering present capturing the future it is the present conquered and captured and carried off by the past.

Milan Kundera

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Milan Kundera
Age: 95
Born: 1929
Born: April 1
Author
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Brünn
Past
Capturing
Look
Conquered
Captured
Looks
Carried
Different
Conquer
Time
Longer
Present
Future
Conquering

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Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo.
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We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under . . . The fourth category, the rarest, is the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers.
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I cannot hate them because nothing binds me to them I have nothing in common with them.
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All lovers unconsciously establish their own rules of the game, which from the outset admit of no transgression.
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She is sadder and sadder, and for a man there is no balm more soothing than the sadness he has caused a woman.
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The beauty of New York is unintentional it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern.
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Eroticism is like a dance: one always leads the other.
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And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?
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This symmetrical composition--the same motif at the beginning and at the end--may seem quite novelistic to you, and I am willing to agree, but only on condition that you refrain from reading such notions as fictive, fabricated, and untrue to life into the word novelistic. Because human lives are composed in precisely such a fas
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Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.
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Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.
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In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.
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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
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Optimism is the opium of the people.
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Yes, the essence of every love is a child, and it makes no difference at all whether it has ever actually been conceived or born. In the algebra of love a child is the symbol of the magical sum of two beings.
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Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something - love - from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.
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The young man called the waiter and paid. Then he got up and said to the girl: 'We're going.' Where to?' The girl feigned surprise. Don't ask, just come on,' said the young man. Is that any way to talk to me?' It's the way I talk to whores.
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Happiness is the longing for repetition.
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The river flowed from century to century, and human affairs play themselves out on its banks. Play themselves out to be forgotten the next day, while the river flows on.
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Even in the game there lurks a lack of freedom even in a game is a trap for the players.
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