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Thomas Bernhard Biography

Thomas Bernhard

Thomas Bernhard (German: [ˈtoːmas ˈbɛʁnhaʁt]; born Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.

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Thomas Bernhard Quotes

Arrogance is an utterly appropriate weapon to use against a hostile world, a world in which arrogance is feared and respected, even if, like mine, it's only feigned.

Arrogance, Feared, Respected, Use, World

I really only write about inner landscapes and most people don't see them, because they see practically nothing within, because they think that because it's inside, it's dark, and so they don't see anything. I don't think I've ever yet, in any of my books, described a landscape. There's really nothing of the kind in any of them. I only ever write concepts. And so I'm always referring to "mountains" or "a city" or "streets. " But as to how they look: I've never produced a description of a landscape. That's never even interested me.

Book, Dark, Landscape, Practically, Write, Writing

I did not want to be anything, and naturally I did not want to turn myself into a mere profession: all I ever wanted was to be myself.

Mere, Profession, Turn, Turns, Want

Those who live in the country get idiotic in time, without noticing it, for a while they think it's original and good for their health, but life in the country is not original at all, for anyone who wasn't born in and for the country it shows a lack of taste and is only harmful to their health. The people who go walking in the country walk right into their own funeral in the country and at the very least they lead a grotesque existence which leads them first into idiocy, then into an absurd death.

Country, Thinking, People, Time, Harmful, Life

All of living is nothing but a fervid attempt to move closer together.

Attempt, Fervid, Move, Moving, Together

Everyone, he went on, speaks a language he does not understand, but which now and then is understood by others. That is enough to permit one to exist and at least to be misunderstood.

Doe, Everyone, Language, Misunderstood, Permit

One day you're cut off, at the very start you're cut off and can't go back, the language you learn and the whole business of walking and all the rest is for the sake of the single thought, how to get back again.

Cutting, One Day, Sake, Single, Start

You are never truly together with one you love until the person in question is dead and actually inside you.

Actually, Dead, One You Love, Persons, Question, Together

. . . Whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do, and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it's the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we're finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it's better to die having made the journey we're been longing for than to be stifled by our longing.

Condition, Die, Goes On, Journey, Worry, Worst

I avoid literature whenever possible, because whenever possible I avoid myself.

Avoid, Literature, Possible, Whenever

Everything is what it is, that's all. If we keep attaching meanings and mysteries to everything we perceive, everything we see that is, and to everything that goes on inside us, we are bound to go crazy sooner or later, I thought.

Attaching, Crazy, Everything, Goes On, Meanings, Mystery

You've always lived a life of pretense, not a real life-- a simulated existence, not a genuine existence. Everything about you, everything you are, has always been pretense, never genuine, never real.

Everything, Existence, Genuine, Pretense, Real, Simulated

Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost.

Early, Inspirational, Proper, Too Late, Write, Writing

. . . He was just scraps of words and dislocated phrases.

Dislocated, Phrases, Scrap, Scraps, Words

People keep a dog and are ruled by this dog, and even Schopenhauer was ruled in the end not by his head, but by his dog. This fact is more depressing than any other.

Depressing, Dog, Head, People

The study of sickness is the most poetic of the sciences.

Poetic, Sciences, Sickness, Study

I had to spend my entire childhood in the Altensam dungeon like an inmate doing time for no comprehensible reason, for a crime he can't remember committing, a judicial error probably.

Errors, Childhood, Dungeons, Dungeon, Remember

We publish only to satisfy out craving for fame; there's no other motive except the even baser one of making money.

Making Money, Fame, Motive, Money, Baser

everything is ridiculous if one thinks of death

Critical Thinking, Death, Everything, Ridiculous, Thinking, Thinks

I would be the unhappiest person imaginable, confronted daily with disastrous works crying out with errors, imprecision, carelessness, amateurishness. I avoided this punishment by destroying them, I thought, and suddenly I took great pleasure in the word destroying.

Avoided, Errors, Person, Punishment, Thought, Would Be

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