Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký, CM was a Czech writer and publisher who spent much of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. By turns humorous, wise, eloquent and humanistic, Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.
“Bez urážky lze importovat jenom myšlenky myšlenkami, ne myšlenky zbraněmi. Každý násilný conquistador pokládá obyvatele dobývaného území za méněcenné. Conquistou jim to dává najevo. Je-li tu však něco méněcenného, pak jsou to myšlenky, které se umějí prosadit jenom zbraněmi.”
Josef Škvorecký
“Artists hold out the mirror to the bruises on the face of the world.”
Josef Škvorecký
“We may think we live for wisdom, but in fact we're living for the the pleasure wisdom brings us.”
Josef Škvorecký