Elfriede Jelinek photo

Elfriede Jelinek

Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist, best known for her novel, The Piano Teacher.

She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."


“Vorsorge ist besser als das Nachsehen zu haben.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“[D]amit das Kind den Weg durch Intrigen auch findet, schlägt sie an jeder Ecke Wegweiser in den Boden und Erika gleich mit, wenn diese nicht üben will.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“Gleich wird sie dieses Stück ihres Lebens bei einer Freundin und bei Rindfleisch mit Fisolen repetieren, das Leben gleichsam um diese kleine Spanne des darüber Berichtens verlängern, wäre nicht die Zeit während ihrer Erzählung, die ja ihrerseits unaufhaltsam verstreicht. Und der Dame damit Raum für neues Erleben nimmt.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“Every day, a piece of music, a short story, or a poem dies because its existence is no longer justified in our time. And things that were once considered immortal have become mortal again, no one knows them anymore. Even though they deserve to survive.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“perfectly happy momma goes out into the fields. she eavesdrops on herself, in case somewhere deep inside a melody rings out or a blackbird sings, but all that she hears, is only the cancer, which saws and eats away at her.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“Anna despises two classes of people: first, those who own their own homes and have cars and families, and second, everybody else. Constantly she is on the verge of exploding. With rage. A pool of pure red. The pool is filled with speechlessness that talks away at her nonstop.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“Vice is basically the love of failure.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“Das Schreiben ist kein Genuss. Es ist das Quälende. Etwas, was man tut, wie Kotzen. Man muss es tun, obwohl man es eigentlich nicht will.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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“He lies like a book. And he reads a lot of books.”
Elfriede Jelinek
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