Yann Martel Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• If literature does one thing, it makes you more empathetic by making you live other lives and feel the pain of others. Ideologues don't feel the pain of others because they haven't imaginatively got under their skins.

  Yann Martel

  Pain, Empathy, Skins

  "Yann Martel: 'Jewish people don't own the Holocaust'" by Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• Nature can put on a thrilling show. The stage is vast, the lighting is dramatic, the extras are innumerable, and the budget for special effects is absolutely unlimited.

  Yann Martel

  Special, Dramatic, Unlimited

  Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.113, Vintage Canada

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• If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?

  Yann Martel

  Life, Believe, Love Is

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.424, Canongate Books

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• The animals might embody certain traits. We think of tigers as being ferocious, etc. But to my mind, it was the other way around: the humans embodied certain animal traits.

  Yann Martel

  Animal, Thinking, Mind

  Interview, www.bookbrowse.com. October 2, 2002.

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• It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.

  Yann Martel

  Letting Go, Heart, Should Have

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.294, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy.

  Yann Martel

  Clever, Self, Law

  Yann Martel (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.170, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The presence of God is the finest of rewards.

  Yann Martel

  Rewards, Finest, Presence Of God

  Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.69, Vintage Canada

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• If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

  Yann Martel

  Prayer, Philosophy, Moving

  "Life of Pi". Book by Yann Martel, September 11, 2001.

  15 Copy quote

• When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

  Yann Martel

  Sad, Pain, Unbearable

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.21, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Truth is a nebulous thing. There are certain, definite truths, but the truth of our lives goes far beyond facts.

  Yann Martel

  Facts, Truth Is, Certain

  Source: www.avclub.com

  10 Copy quote

• I have a fierce will to live. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others - and I am one of those - never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end.

  Yann Martel

  Giving Up, Fighting, Loss

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.158, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  44 Copy quote

• I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.

  Yann Martel

  Dream, Mistake, Hands

  "Life of Pi". Book by Yann Martel, September 11, 2001.

  56 Copy quote

• I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even once. The pain is like an axe that chops my heart.

  Yann Martel

  Goodbye, Dream, Pain

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.22, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.

  Yann Martel

  Motivational, Music, Dream

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.12, Canongate Books

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• A realization that the founding principle of existence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably.

  Yann Martel

  Inspirational, Life, Principles

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.98, Canongate Books

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• I was giving up. I would have given up - if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen everyday. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.

  Yann Martel

  Giving Up, Hard Work, Heart

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.158, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  6 Copy quote

• The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.

  Yann Martel

  Mind, Want, Soar

  Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.314, Vintage Canada

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• I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.

  Yann Martel

  Beautiful, Challenges, Brotherhood

  Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.67, Vintage Canada

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• There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God... These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside.

  Yann Martel

  People, Realizing, Failing

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.110, Canongate Books

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• Just as art brings you to another place, so does religion - and to ask questions of factuality tends to reduce both. If you say you were inspired by a novel, that implies that your book is a work of fiction.

  Yann Martel

  Art, Book, Doe

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• ...if you fall into a lion's pit, the reason the lion will tear you to pieces is not because it's hungry-be assured, zoo animals are amply fed-or because it's bloodthirsty, but because you've invaded it's territory.

  Yann Martel

  Zoos, Fall, Animal

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.73, Canongate Books

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• Religion is more than rite and ritual.

  Yann Martel

  Life Of Pi Book, Rite, Ritual

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.79, Canongate Books

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• Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths. As for nonfiction, for history, it may be real, but its truth is slippery, hard to access, with no fixed meaning bolted to it. If history doesn't become story, it dies to everyone except the historian.

  Yann Martel

  Real, Emotional, Fiction

  Yann Martel (2010). “Beatrice and Virgil”, p.16, Canongate Books

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• To my mind, faith is like being in the sun. When you are in the sun, can you avoid creating a shadow? Can you shake that area of darkness that clings to you, always shaped like you, as if constantly to remind you of yourself? You can’t. This shadow is doubt. And it goes wherever you go as long as you stay in the sun. And who wouldn’t want to be in the sun?

  Yann Martel

  Creating, Long, Darkness

  Yann Martel (2010). “Beatrice and Virgil”, p.103, Canongate Books

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• How long does it take for a broken spirit to kill a body that has food, water and shelter?

  Yann Martel

  Broken Spirit, Long, Water

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.290, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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