Zitate von Susan Sontag

„Faschismus (und offene Militärherrschaft) ist nicht nur das wahrscheinliche Schicksal aller kommunistischen Gesellschaften - insbesondere, wenn ihre Bevölkerung zum Aufstand veranlasst wird -, sondern der Kommunismus ist an sich eine Variante, die erfolgreichste Variante des Faschismus. Faschismus mit menschlichem Antlitz.“

—  Susan Sontag

("Not only is Fascism (and overt military rule) the probable destiny of all Communist societies — especially when their populations are moved to revolt — but Communism is in itself a variant, the most successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human face.") - Ansprache, Town Hall, New York, 6. Februar 1982, "Susan Sontag Provokes Debate on Communism" http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/12/specials/sontag-communism.html, The New York Times, 27. Februar 1982, p. 27

„Die Wahrheit ist, dass Mozart, Pascal, Boolesche Algebra, Shakespeare, parlamentarische Regierungsform, Barockkirchen, Newton, die Emanzipation der Frauen, Kant, Marx und die Ballette Balanchines nicht wiedergutmachen, was diese besondere Zivilisation über die Welt gebracht hat. Die weiße Rasse ist der Krebs der Menschheitsgeschichte.“

—  Susan Sontag

("The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Balanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.") - Partisan Review (Winter 1967), p. 57 Notes on Susan http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2007/aug/16/notes-on-susan, The New York Review of Books, Eliot Weinberger, 2007

„Ich war nicht überall, aber es steht auf meiner Liste.“

—  Susan Sontag

("I've been everywhere. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.") - "Unguided Tour", in The New Yorker, 31. Oktober 1977, auch in I, Etcetera, 1977;

“Her exemplary effort to swallow the world”: Wasserman on Sontag, yesterday in Berlin http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2015/01/her-exemplary-effort-to-swallow-the-world-wasserman-on-sontag-yesterday-in-berlin, Stanford University, 30. Januar, 2015

„Du musst tot sein. Wenn Du den Preis gekriegt hast, danach ist Schluss“

—  Susan Sontag

auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse, Susan Sontag ist tot https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/literatur-susan-sontag-ist-tot-a-334724.html, 28.12.2004, Der Spiegel; Susan Sontag gestorben https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/literatur-susan-sontag-gestorben-1196786.html, 29.12.2004, FAZ

„Meine Bibliothek ist ein Archiv der Sehnsüchte.“

—  Susan Sontag

„Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.“

—  Susan Sontag

"The Imagination of Disaster" from Against Interpretation and Other Essays (1966), p. 212
Against Interpretation and Other Essays (1966)

„Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.“

—  Susan Sontag

„Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.“

—  Susan Sontag

„I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.“

—  Susan Sontag

"Unguided Tour", in The New Yorker (31 October 1977), final lines; also in I, Etcetera (1977)
Kontext: A curious word, wanderlust. I'm ready to go.
I've already gone. Regretfully, exultantly. A prouder lyricism. It's not Paradise that's lost.
Advice. Move along, let's get cracking, don’t hold me down, he travels fastest who travels alone. Let's get the show on the road. Get up, slugabed. I'm clearing out of here. Get your ass in gear. Sleep faster, we need the pillow.
She's racing, he's stalling.
If I go this fast, I won't see anything. If I slow down —
Everything. — then I won't have seen everything before it disappears.
Everywhere. I've been everywhere. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
Land's end. But there's water, O my heart. And salt on my tongue.
The end of the world. This is not the end of the world.

„My library is an archive of longings.“

—  Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

Quelle: As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

„To paraphrase several sages: Nobody can think and hit someone at the same time.“

—  Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

Quelle: Regarding the Pain of Others

„All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.“

—  Susan Sontag, buch On Photography

Variante: to take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.
Quelle: On Photography

„To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better.“

—  Susan Sontag

"Susan Sontag Finds Romance," interview by Leslie Garis, The New York Times (2 August 1992)
Kontext: To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A better state of one's feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same.

„One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feeling… which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment.“

—  Susan Sontag

Kontext: One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feeling... which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.

"Susan Sontag: The Rolling Stone Interview" with Jonathan Cott (1978; published 4 October 1979)

„I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.“

—  Susan Sontag

"Susan Sontag: The Rolling Stone Interview" with Jonathan Cott (1978; published 4 October 1979)
Kontext: One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feeling... which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.

„The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.“

—  Susan Sontag

Review of Selected Essays by Simone Weil, The New York Review of Books (1 February 1963)
Kontext: The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.

„The end of the world. This is not the end of the world.“

—  Susan Sontag

"Unguided Tour", in The New Yorker (31 October 1977), final lines; also in I, Etcetera (1977)
Kontext: A curious word, wanderlust. I'm ready to go.
I've already gone. Regretfully, exultantly. A prouder lyricism. It's not Paradise that's lost.
Advice. Move along, let's get cracking, don’t hold me down, he travels fastest who travels alone. Let's get the show on the road. Get up, slugabed. I'm clearing out of here. Get your ass in gear. Sleep faster, we need the pillow.
She's racing, he's stalling.
If I go this fast, I won't see anything. If I slow down —
Everything. — then I won't have seen everything before it disappears.
Everywhere. I've been everywhere. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
Land's end. But there's water, O my heart. And salt on my tongue.
The end of the world. This is not the end of the world.

„Communism is in itself a variant, the most successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human face.“

—  Susan Sontag

Speech, Town Hall, New York City (6 Februaty 1982), reported in "Susan Sontag Provokes Debate on Communism" http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/12/specials/sontag-communism.html, The New York Times (27 February 1982), p. 27
Kontext: Not only is Fascism (and overt military rule) the probable destiny of all Communist societies — especially when their populations are moved to revolt — but Communism is in itself a variant, the most successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human face.

„Literature offers not only myths but counter-myths, just as life offers counter-experiences — experiences that confound what you thought you thought, or felt, or believed.“

—  Susan Sontag

Frankfurt Book Fair speech (2003)
Kontext: Literature is dialogue; responsiveness. Literature might be described as the history of human responsiveness to what is alive and what is moribund as cultures evolve and interact with one another.
Writers can do something to combat these clichés of our separateness, our difference — for writers are makers, not just transmitters, of myths. Literature offers not only myths but counter-myths, just as life offers counter-experiences — experiences that confound what you thought you thought, or felt, or believed.