Patrick Süskind Quotes

• Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.

  Patrick Süskind

  Stronger, Odor, Scent

  62 Copy quote

• ...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.

  Patrick Süskind

  Hard Work, Mean, Humility

  75 Copy quote

• He realized that all his life he had been a nobody to everyone. What he now felt was the fear of his own oblivion. It was as though he did not exist.

  Patrick Süskind

  Oblivion, Felt

  "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer". www.imdb.com. 2006.

  44 Copy quote

• He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.

  Patrick Süskind

  Principles, Scent, Made

  53 Copy quote

• He succeeded in being considered totally uninteresting. People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.

  Patrick Süskind

  People, Wanted, Left

  55 Copy quote

• For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.

  Patrick Süskind

  Brother, Hate, Heart

  22 Copy quote

• People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.

  Patrick Süskind

  People, Wanted, Left

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”, p.170, Penguin UK

  43 Copy quote

• He possessed the power. He held it in his hand. A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death: the invincible power to command the love of mankind. There was only one thing that power could not do: it could not make him able to smell himself.

  Patrick Süskind

  Hands, Smell, Stronger

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”, p.233, Penguin UK

  19 Copy quote

• This perfume was not like any perfume known before. It was not a scent that made things smell better... it was completely new, capable of creating a whole world, a magical, rich world, and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich, so at ease, so free, so fine.

  Patrick Süskind

  Smell, Creating, World

  19 Copy quote

• He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.

  Patrick Süskind

  Heart, Men, Scent

  16 Copy quote

• ...he came to the conclusion that you cannot depend on people, and that you can live in peace only if you keep them at arm's length.

  Patrick Süskind

  People, Arms, Length

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “The Pigeon”, p.6, Penguin UK

  16 Copy quote

• Bathed in sweat and trembling with agitation, no, not with agitation, but with fear, for he finally admitted it to himself: it was naked fear that had seized him, and in admitting it he grew calmer and his thoughts clearer.

  Patrick Süskind

  Fear, Sweat, Agitation

  9 Copy quote

• Not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one, an excitement burning with a cold flame.

  Patrick Süskind

  Flames, Burning, Enthusiasm

  25 Copy quote

• And because people are stupid and use their noses only for blowing, but believe absolutely anything they see with their eyes, they will say it is because this is a girl with beauty and grace and charm.

  Patrick Süskind

  Girl, Stupid, Believe

  24 Copy quote

• She was indeed a girl of exquisite beauty. She was one of those languid women made of dark honey smooth and sweet and terribly sticky.

  Patrick Süskind

  Girl, Sweet, Dark

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”, p.182, Penguin UK

  18 Copy quote

• He had withdrawn solely for his own personal pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid.

  Patrick Süskind

  Pleasure, Splendid, Found

  9 Copy quote

• It was good, really, that this external world still existed, if only as a place of refuge.

  Patrick Süskind

  World, Refuge, Stills

  12 Copy quote

• He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and malice.

  Patrick Süskind

  Favors, Spite, Malice

  12 Copy quote

• When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love.

  Patrick Süskind

  Done, Proud, Firsts

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”, p.236, Penguin UK

  10 Copy quote

• No human being can go on living in the same house with a pigeon, a pigeon is the epitomy of chaos and anarchy, a pigeon that whizzes around unpredictably, that sets it's claws in you, picks at your eyes.

  Patrick Süskind

  Eye, House, Goes On

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “The Pigeon”, p.11, Penguin UK

  17 Copy quote

• How quickly the apparently solidly laid foundation of one's existence could crumble.

  Patrick Süskind

  Foundation, Existence

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “The Pigeon”, p.32, Penguin UK

  9 Copy quote

• And finally - he was neither able nor willing to prevent it - the self-loathing dammed up inside him spilled over and gushed out, gushed out of glaring eyes that grew ever grimmer, angrier, beneath the rim of his cap, flooding the outside world as perfect, vulgar hate.

  Patrick Süskind

  Hate, Eye, Self

  11 Copy quote

• With one glance he had got himself trapped in the brown fundament of her eyes, he was in danger of sinking, as if into a soft, brown swamp, and he had to close his own eyes for a second to get out of it.

  Patrick Süskind

  Eye, Swamps, Danger

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “The Pigeon”, p.21, Penguin UK

  13 Copy quote

• Very well, but remember this... I'll be looking at you when you're laid on the cross and the twelve blows are crashing down on your limbs. When the crowd is finally tired of your screams and wandered home, I will climb up through your blood and sit beside you. I will look deep into your eyes... and drop by drop I will trickle my disgust into them like burning acid until... finally... you perish.

  Patrick Süskind

  Eye, Home, Tired

  Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, www.imdb.com. 2006.

  11 Copy quote

• And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.

  Patrick Süskind

  Heart, Eye, Dark

  8 Copy quote

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