Quote

For the first time I noticed - as I would notice repeatedly during my ordeal, between one throe of agony and the next - that my suffering was taking place in a grand setting. I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still. My suffering did not fit anywhere, I realized. And I could accept this. It was all right.

Yann Martel

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Yann Martel
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: June 25
Author
Novelist
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
First
Taking
Settings
Ordeal
Right
Accepting
Notice
Ordeals
Would
Suffering
Anywhere
Repeatedly
Time
Next
Setting
Insignificant
Place
Realized
Agony
Stills
Fit
Finite
Still
Accept
Noticed
Firsts
Saws
Grand

More quotes by Yann Martel

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I have read that there are two fears that cannot be trained out of us: the startle reaction upon hearing an unexpected noise, and vertigo. I would like to add a third, to wit, the rapid and direct approch of a known killer
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Any writer will be happy and good only if they know what they're doing and why they're doing it.
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Don’t worry about being good…. Aspire to be authentic.
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The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.
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How does one say in the jargon of musicology that my sould was pulled out of me and thrown up in the air, to be tossed about by the music. How does one say that I breathed, that I existed, in harmony with the ups and downs of those notes. What kind of notes both elevate and cast down, exalt and crush?
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I have a story that will make you believe in God.
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Words are cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field-but they're all we have.
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My greatest wish — other than salvation — was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time.
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But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian.
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Christianity is a religion in a rush. Look at the world created in seven says. Even on a symbolic lovel, that's creation in frenzy.
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The idea of a flip book still really appeals to me. That idea of fiction and non-fiction.
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If you write genre fiction, you follow the rules, and you have to follow them because readers expect that.
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The tennis challenger starts strong but soon loses confidence in his playing. The champion racks up the games. But in the final set, when the challenger has nothing left to lose, he becomes relaxed again, insouciant, daring. Suddenly he's playing like the devil and the champion must work hard to get those last points.
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Can there be any happiness greater than the happiness of salvation?
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I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.
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There is nothing more satisfying than having a sentence fall into place in a way you feel is right, and then adding another one and then another one. It's extraordinarily satisfying.
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Christianity stretches back through the ages, but in essence it exists only at one time: right now.
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If there's only one nation in the sky, shouldn't all passports be valid for it?
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I felt I was beating a rainbow to death
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We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?
Yann Martel