Cees Nooteboom



Cees Nooteboom (born July 31, 1933, in The Hague), Dutch author, frequently mentioned for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Rituals (1980)
From the translated edition from Harvest, 1980 [ISBN-13: 978-0-15-600394-0]


 * Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases. (Page 1)


 * It is a peculiarity of time that in retrospect it appears so compact, an indivisible solid object, a dish with only one smell and one flavor. (Page 4)


 * From the number of self-murderers he had known-you had to put it that way, for the fact that someone died rounded off your knowledge of that person, if only because he or she could no longer present you with surprises-he was able to conclude that his circle of acquaintance must consist of a thousand people. If he were to invite all these voluntary dead to tea, two boxes of cream cakes from Berkhof's would scarcely suffice. (Page 20)


 * It would be like this when you were really old-a city full of imaginary houses and women, rooms and girls. (Page 125)

The Following Story (1991)
From the translated edition from Harvest, 1993 [ISBN 0-15-600254-X]


 * I had breezed home on the wings of five gins.


 * My tears are only triggered by kitsch.


 * We will feel the draft blowing through the cracks in the structure of causality.


 * That is the difference between gods and men. Gods can change themselves; humans can only be changed.


 * Besides, I simply had to get back to my books right away, because the company of most people, once the predictable events have taken their course, does not inspire conversation on my part.


 * For the sake of having her with me I had to tolerate the shadow of a tracksuited poet, but one who has taken the guise of a man in love will indiscriminately eat and drink platefuls of thistles, barrels of vinegar.


 * Every period in history has its own punishments, and ours has a multitude.


 * The world is a never-ending cross-reference.