Janne Teller

“Meaning is not something you can sell”

“We cried because we had lost something and gained something else. And because it hurt both losing and gaining. And because we knew what we had lost but weren't as yet able to put into words what it was we had gained.”

“To be sure, there were still a lot of people against us, but the very intensity of the fight over the meaning of the heap of meaning could only indicate that the matter was of the greatest significance. And significance was the same as meaning, and the greatest significance was therefore the same as the greatest meaning.And I only doubted a tiny little bit.”

“Without knowing exactly what, I knew that the fire was something that had to do with the meaning. I decided I wasn't going to forget it, no matter what happened. No matter that the fire wasn't something that could be added to the heap, or that I was ever going to be able to explain in any way to Pierre Anthon.”

“The door smiled. It was the first time I'd seen it do that. Pierre Anthon left the door ajar like a grinning abyss that would swallow me up into the outside with him if only I let myself go. Smiling at whom? At me, at us. I looked around the class. The uncomfortable silence told me the others had felt it too.We were supposed to amount to something.”

“¿Por qué finge todo el mundo que todo lo que no es importante lo es y mucho, y al mismo tiempo todos se afanan terriblemente en fingir que lo realmente importante no lo es en absoluto?”

“Si vivís hasta los ochenta, habréis dormido treinta años, ido a la escuela y hecho deberes cerca de nueve años y trabajado casi catorce años. Como ya habéis empleado más de seis años en ser niños y jugar, y después gastaréis, como mínimo, doce años en limpiar, hacer la comida y cuidar a los hijos, os quedarán como máximo nueve años para vivir. Y todavía osaréis emplear esos nueve años en fingir que tenéis éxito actuando en este teatro sin sentido, cuando en lugar de ello podríais disfrutar de esos años inmediatamente.”

“Si valiera la pena enfadarse por algo, también existiría algo por lo que alegrarse. Si mereciera la pena alegrarse por algo, existiría algo que importara”

“Todo da igual. Porque todo empieza sólo para acabar. En el mismo instante en que nacéis empezáis ya a morir. Y así ocurre con todo.”

“How come everyone's making like everthing that isn't important is very important, all the while they're so busy pretending what's really important isn't important at all?”

“Everything begins only to end. The moment you were born you began to die. That's how it is with everything.”

“We were supposed to amount to something. Something was the same as someone, and even if nobody ever said so out loud, it was hardly left unspoken, either. It was just in the air, or in the time, or in fence surrounding the school, or in our pillows, or in the soft toys that after having served us so loyally had now been unjustly discarded and left to gather dust in attics or basements. I hadn't known.”

“And although we'd sworn we'd never become like them, that was exactly what was happening. We weren't even fifteen yet. Thirteen, fourteen, adult, dead.”

“From the moment we are born, we begin to die.”

“Alles ist egal", ruft er seiner Klasse zu. "Denn alles fängt nur an, um aufzuhören. In demselben Moment, in dem ihr geboren werdet, fangt ihr an zu sterben. Und so ist es mit allem.”