Joseph Brodsky: Zitate auf Englisch
"A Commencement Address" (1984), delivered at Williams College; As quoted in: Robert Inchausti (2014) Thinking through Thomas Merton. p. 110
Kontext: The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even — if you will — eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with. Something, in other words, that can't be shared, like your own skin: not even by a minority. Evil is a sucker for solidity. It always goes for big numbers, for confident granite, for ideological purity, for drilled armies and balanced sheets. Its proclivity for such things has to do with its innate insecurity, but this realization, again, is of small comfort when Evil triumphs.
Quoted in: Drusilla Modjeska, Beth Yahp (1995) Picador New Writing. Vol. 3-4, p. 13
“An object, after all, is what makes infinity private.”
Joseph Brodsky buch Watermark
Quelle: Watermark
Joseph Brodsky buch Less Than One: Selected Essays
Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986)
“The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time.”
Joseph Brodsky buch Less Than One: Selected Essays
Quelle: Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986), p. 28
Kontext: The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. This is what really bothers you, that you can't win. Prison is lack of alternatives, and the telescopic predictability of the future is what drives you crazy.
Joseph Brodsky buch Less Than One: Selected Essays
Quelle: Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986), p. 14
