Milan Kundera Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“The light that radiates from the great novels time can never dim, for human existence is perpetually being forgotten by man and thus the novelists' discoveries, however old they may be, will never cease to astonish.”

“The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.”

“Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten.”

“I am incapable of speaking of myself and of my life and the states of my soul, I am discreet to an almost pathological degree, and there is nothing I can do against that.”

“Every change of scene requires new expositions, descriptions, explanations.”

“There are no small parts. Only small actors.”

“There are metaphysical problems, problems of human existence, that philosophy has never known how to grasp in all their concreteness and that only the novel can seize.”

“Man's world is the planet of inexperience.”

“In order to make the novel into a polyhistorical illumination of existence, you need to master the technique of ellipsis, the art of condensation. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of endless length.”

“True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.”