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The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history.

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
Firsts
Destroy
Book
Memory
First
Step
People
Steps
Memories
Books
History
Culture
Erase

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Eroticism is like a dance: one always leads the other.
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...no one can do a thing about feelings, they exist and there's no way to censor them. We can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it.
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The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
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Until that time, her betrayals had filled her with excitement and joy, because they opened up new paths to new adventures of betrayal. But what if the paths came to an end? One could betray one's parents, husband, country, love, but when parents, husband, country, and love were gone - what was left to betray?
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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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Fidelity gives a unity to lives that would otherwise splinter into thousands of split-second impressions.
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The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries.
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But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.
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Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.
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Looking out over the courtyard at the dirty walls, he realized he had no idea whether it was hysteria or love.
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Is not parody the eternal lot of man?
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La memoria no guarda películas, guarda fotografías.
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The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.
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Merely by being born intelligent, you right away find yourself in absolute exile.
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It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch.
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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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Those boobs of yours are ubiquitous - like God!
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There is no perfection only life
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For the body is temporal and thought is eternal and the shimmering essence of flame is an image of thought.
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Once her love had been publicized, it would gain weight, become a burden.
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