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Only a literary work that reveals an unknown fragment of human existence has a reason for being.

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
Reason
Human
Humans
Fragment
Work
Fragments
Reveals
Literary
Unknown
Existence

More quotes by Milan Kundera

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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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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
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The emotion of love gives all of us a misleading illusion of knowing the other.
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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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The great European novel started out as entertainment, and every true novelist is nostalgic for it. In fact, the themes of those great entertainments are terribly serious-think of Cervantes!
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A man able to think isn't defeated - even when he is defeated.
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The ludicrous element in our feeling does not make them any less authentic.
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When we ignore the body, we are more easily victimized by it.
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In her presence I could dare everything: sincerity, emotion, pathos.
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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.
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Leroy interrupted Chantal's fantasies: Freedom? As you live our your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom. You're free to melt your own individuality into the cauldron of the multitude either with a feeling of defeat or euphoria.
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Radio... force-feeds us music... everywhere and all the time... sewage-water music in which music is dying.
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Speak truth to power.
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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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Love is a continual interrogation. I don’t know of a better definition of love.
Milan Kundera
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Happiness is the longing for repetition.
Milan Kundera
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The beauty of New York is unintentional it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern.
Milan Kundera
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Joking is a barrier between man and the world. Joking is the enemy of love and poetry.
Milan Kundera
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The border between good and evil is terribly fuzzy.
Milan Kundera
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Memory does not make films, it makes photographs.
Milan Kundera