Quotes by Yann Martel

About Yann Martel:

Yann Martel is an author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, a #1 international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. It was adapted to the screen by Ang Lee.
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

I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which i...

Yann Martel

It's not atheists who get stuck in my caw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for awhile. We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we... But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin t...

Yann Martel

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity--it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.

Yann Martel

Only death consistently excites your emotions, whether contemplating when life is safe and stale, or fleeing it when life is threatened and precious

Yann Martel

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.

Yann Martel

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.

Yann Martel

For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.

Yann Martel

There are animals we haven't stopped by. Don't think they're harmless. Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

Yann Martel

Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love--but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pac...

Yann Martel

What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and ...

Yann Martel

I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which i...

Yann Martel

I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.

Yann Martel

My feelings can perhaps be imagined, but they can hardly be described.

Yann Martel

I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain il...

Yann Martel

These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy...walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'Business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave ...

Yann Martel

Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.

Yann Martel

The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush...

Yann Martel

My gratitude to him is as boundless as the Pacific ocean.

Yann Martel

Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn't stay dry.

Yann Martel

I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon m...

Yann Martel

Mockery be damned, my urine looked delicious.

Yann Martel

Author Bio

  • NameYann Martel
  • DescriptionA Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi
  • BornJune 25, 1963
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • WorksLife Of Pi