Quotes by J. M. Coetzee

About J. M. Coetzee:

John Maxwell "J. M." Coetzee is a South African novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He relocated to Australia in 2002 and lives in Adelaide. He became an Australian citizen in 2006.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

In becoming a citizen, one undertakes certain duties and responsibilities. One of the more intangible of those duties and responsibilities is no matter what one's birth and background, to accept the historical past of the new country as one's own.

J. M. Coetzee

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

J. M. Coetzee

There is nothing more inimical to writing than the spirit of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism abhors the play of signs, the endlessness of writing. Fundamentalism means nothing more or less than going back to an origin and staying there. It stands for ...

J. M. Coetzee

South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less-than-fully-human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison.

J. M. Coetzee

My response, a dubious and hesitant one, is that it has been and may continue to be, in the time that is left to me, more productive to live out the question than to try to answer it in abstract terms.

J. M. Coetzee

The end of confession is to tell the truth to and for oneself.

J. M. Coetzee

We are not by nature cruel.

J. M. Coetzee

I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

J. M. Coetzee

Author Bio

  • NameJ. M. Coetzee
  • DescriptionSouth African writer
  • BornFebruary 9, 1940
  • CountrySouth Africa
  • ProfessionLinguist; Writer; Novelist; Essayist; Translator; Librettist
  • AwardsNobel Prize In Literature; Chevalier Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize