Imre Kertész

“The biggest problem, of course, was my first novel, Sorrow, where I had to face the fact that many people had already written it, with many bad versions and one or two good ones. But the point was that you must not identify with it. You had to know the limits of the language. You had to know very clearly that the person speaking here is not a real flesh and blood, but a fictional character with a language. So it was just language and nothing else. And this is the law that keeps us in discipline, and which, when transgressed, gives rise to alien texts. This is good and clear control, but it is difficult. So in writing Sorrow, sometimes years passed between two chapters. I couldn’t get into that style. I say, the primary thing is that the person who speaks is a literary figure, it’s just a language, not flesh and blood reality. And as soon as you try to make it flesh and blood reality, it gets messed up.”

“I am eighty-two years old. I am sick. My reaction is to move to Berlin. To take action? I can only act through writing. And when I do, it has no effect, or I’m condemned for it.”