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Josef Skvorecky Quotes

There is beauty everywhere on earth, but there is greater beauty in those places where one feels that sense of ease which comes from no longer having to put off one’s dreams until some improbable future – a future

There is beauty everywhere on earth, but there is greater beauty in those places where one feels that sense of ease which comes from no longer having to put off one’s dreams until some improbable future – a future inexorably shrinking away; where the fear that has pervaded one’s life suddenly vanishes because there is... nothing to be afraid of.

Josef Skvorecky
Dream, Beauty Everywhere, Shrinking
Josef Škvorecký (1986). “The engineer of human souls: an entertainment on the old themes of life, women, fate, dreams, the working class, secret agents, love and death”, Picador

Artists hold out the mirror to the bruises on the face of the world.

Josef Skvorecky
Artist, Mirrors, Bruises
Josef Škvorecký (1971). “All the bright young men and women: a personal history of the Czech cinema”, P. Martin Associates

We may think we live for wisdom, but in fact we're living for the the pleasure wisdom brings us.

Josef Skvorecky
Thinking, May, Facts
Josef Škvorecký (1986). “The engineer of human souls: an entertainment on the old themes of life, women, fate, dreams, the working class, secret agents, love and death”, Picador

Lovers of literature will look for the remains of the golden treasure in that shipwreck on the bottom of the sea of criticism.

Josef Skvorecky
Writing, Sea, Hygiene
Josef Škvorecký (1985). “The Engineer of Human Souls”, Pocket Books

When the Communist Party comes to power, it acts a lot like the mafia: If you are a loyal member in good standing, everything is yours. You're protected, even if you commit a crime.

Josef Skvorecky
Party, Mafia, Loyal

Arnošt Lustig is one of the leading contemporary Czech fiction writers, and certainly the most important Jewish writer of Bohemia to have survived the Holocaust.

Josef Skvorecky
Holocaust, Important, Fiction

There is something that falls short of perfection in every book, without exception, something influenced by the age, even something ridiculous; just like everyone, without exception, has weaknesses.

Josef Skvorecky
Book, Fall, Perfection

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