Rolf Dieter Brinkmann famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

  • All my life I've been aware of the Second World War humming in the background. I was born 10 years after it was finished, and without ever seeing it. It formed my generation and the world we lived in. I played Hurricanes and Spitfires in the playground, and war films still form the basis of all my moral philosophy. All the men I've ever got to my feet for or called sir had been in the war.

  • It is said about Lord Buddha sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam. He saw the whole human race going to hell by this animal killing. So he appeared to teach ahimsa, nonviolence, being compassionate on the animals and human beings. In the Christian religion also, it is clearly stated, 'Thou shall not kill'. So everywhere animal killing is restricted. In no religion the unnecessary killing of animals is allowed. But nobody is caring. The killing process is increasing, and so are the reactions. Every ten years you will find a war. These are the reactions.

  • The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

  • Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism 'inevitably' caused war; and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.

  • Poetry is not a waiting room where one stays overnight...every word is war.

  • I like fiction that deals with matters that are of burning importance to us in our private lives. And not all short stories are like that. In general, short stories - and maybe this is a little bit off-topic - but I think short stories have this bad association with, like, waiting rooms.

  • I will never cease advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything.

  • Poetry is the fiery index to the genius of the age.

  • Poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.

  • Poetry seems especially like nothing else so much as itself. Poetry is not like, it is the very lining of the inner life.