Quotes from Andrzej Stasiuk

Pale and massive, he absorbed time like a sponge. Moved something, wiped something, adjusted something, but the future never came.

This modernizing experiment seems to have something diabolic about it. Everything that was becomes rejected in the name of a modernity that assumes the nature of a fiction, an illusion, a devilish apparition. To a greater or lesser extent this applies to all the postcommunist countries.

With events that have passed there is no problem, provided we don't attempt to be wiser that they are, provided we can't use them to further own own ends. If we let them be, the turn into a marvelous solution, a magical acid that dissolves time and space, eats calendars and atlases, and turns the coordinates of action into sweet nothingness. What is the meaning of the riddle? What is the use to anyone of chronology, sister of death?

S tim je tipovima isto tako, podsje?aju na zapo?eto i malkice nedovršeno. Kao da su se zaustavili i ?ekali na nastavak evolucije ili stvaranja, kao da su ?ekali što ?e se još dogoditi i živjeli u neprestanoj sadašnjosti, koja se stalno preobli?uje u prošlost.

A my nie byli?my dla nich wcale zwiastunami zmian, z t? bezcelow? wypraw?, blad? skór?, z butami Salomona, aparatami Pentaxa, z tym kompletnym brakiem uzasadnienia dla w?asnej tutaj obecno?ci, z ca?ym tym kaprysem. Przyj?li nas tak, jakby?my byli dzie?mi tej samej przestrzeni, mieszka?cami tej samej opowie?ci, która trwa od niepami?tnych czasów.

The Napoleon, the whisky and the Cinzano slept on the highest shelf, as unreal in their beauty and as out of reach as the women in American television programs. In their struggle for a higher existence, these men were forever stuck on the level of their forefathers, on the lowest shelf, where the bottles of white vodka and fruit wine stood open and ready. It was a safe and familiar legacy, the limit of their patrimony, their christening, their Sunday mass and their graveyard.

Tym bardziej, ?e i Francja, i Europa mia?y ten geograficzny potrzask w dupie. To by? dla nich Wschód, a Wschód po prostu zas?ugiwa? na to, co dostawa?.

Kim by?my byli, gdyby?my mieli tylko jednego s?siada, a z drugiej strony morze albo Wielskie Ksi?stwo Luksemburg? Byliby?my nikim. Co najwy?ej jeszcze jedn? umieraj?c? z nudów zachodni? demokracj?, jeszcze jedn? postmodernistyczn? republik?, w której g?ównym problemem jest wynajdowanie sposobów sp?dzania wolnego czasu, przeszczepy narz?dów oraz nie?miertelno??.

Bo uwierzyli, ?e zmartwychwsta?? Ciesz? si?, bo ojciec si? cieszy?, bo dziad si? cieszy?, bo mo?na si? naje??. Biedny lud mia? uczt? dwa razy do roku – w Bo?e Narodzenie i w Wielkanoc.

Jeste?my uwi?zieni w stereotypach. Wci?? si? ogl?damy za siebie, czy aby idziemy kup?. W ko?cu ?atwiej pyta?, czy ze mnie Europejczyk, czy Polak, a trudniej, czy aby nie je?op albo i ?winia.

Air, however, closed within a solid form, and space, shaped by vaulting, walls and architectural detail, becomes the most perfect representation of nostalgia. You can walk into it, feel its touch on your skin, but it all flows between your fingers, you can hold it in your lungs, but just for a moment.

Wszystko ma?e jest odbiciem czego? wi?kszego.

Nic tak nie przywraca ch?ci do ?ycia jak spierdolone samobójstwo.

Jazda do Niemiec to jest psychoanaliza.

No ale ?atwiej w grotesk? zamieni? wielkie gesty i wielkie idee ni? ma?? ide? ciep?ej wody w kranie. Na wielkich gestach ?atwiej si? wy?o?y? i prawica mistrzowsko to odgrywa. Jedzie jak na bananowej skórce.

Rewolucja to nie by? ?aden Marks naprawiaj?cy ?wiat, tylko skundlony Tamerlan w pogoni za drobiem i czasomierzami.

Babadag, de nouveau, comme il y a deux ans : le car fait un arrêt de dix minutes, le chauffeur s'éclipse, la marmaille fait la manche sans conviction dans la chaleur torride de midi, rien n'a changé. Seuls les billets de mille lei avec Eminescu ont disparu, remplacés désormais par de petits ronds en aluminium représentant Constantin Brâncoveanu. (p. 308)

Un voyage du pays du roi Ubu au pays du vampire Dracula ne peut pas renfermer de souvenirs auxquels on puisse croire plus tard, comment on croit, par exemple, à l'existence de Paris, de Stonehenge ou de la place Saint-Marc. (p. 22)

le village de Sfîntu Gheorghe possédait en lui une sorte d'héroïsme résigné. Soumis aux éléments, plein de précarité, condamné à l'oubli, il se blottissait contre la terre ferme, tel un nid d'hirondelles. (p. 227)

Dobrze jest ?y? w krainach nieoczywistych, poniewa? ich granice zawieraj? w sobie wi?cej przestrzeni, ni? wskazuje geografia. To s? otch?anie nieznanego, to jest niesko?czona dal domys?ów, uciekaj?cy horyzont wyobra?e? i fatamorgana s?odkich przes?dów, którym nigdy nie sprosta rzeczywisto??.

What is memory, anyway, if not for the endless exchange of currency, a continual allowing and distributing, a counting in the hope that the total will be right, that what once was will return with no shortage, whole, untouched, and perhaps even with interest, through love and longing?

I never thought of the future as any kind of solution. The future is always the refuge of fools. It arrives, and they have to explain why it didn't arrive the way it was supposed to, or prove that this was exactly what they predicted. That's why I prefer to drink alone or with friends and wait for the past to take us into its possession. (page 122)

Freedom has become a commodity whose availability, paradoxically, keeps society in check. The threat of its loss seems to enable us to tolerate its imposition.