Gunter Grass
Gunter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grasswas a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth16 October 1927
CountryGermany
art black finish white
Art is accusation, expression, passion. Art is a fight to the finish between black charcoal and white paper.
artificial certain cultivated face including keeps literary plant test writer
A writer must face up to the test of reality, including political reality, and that can't be done if he keeps his distance. A literary style cultivated like a hothouse plant may show a certain artificial purity, but it won't really be pure.
art flowering stays
No idea stays pure. Even the flowering of art isn't pure. And the sun has spots.
art puritan art-is
Art is hard for a puritan to understand.
artist desire conquer
[To be an artist,] this desire to conquer all with images.
art compromise life-is
Art is uncompromising, and life is full of compromises.
art puritan irrational
Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand.
crush art passion
Art is accusation, expression, passion. Art is black charcoal crushing white paper.
activism attuned both drawing engaged happen invariably mixed politics separate society three whether
For me, writing, drawing, and political activism are three separate pursuits; each has its own intensity. I happen to be especially attuned to and engaged with the society in which I live. Both my writing and my drawing are invariably mixed up with politics, whether I want them to be or not.
auschwitz belongs branded cannot finally great history insight possible
We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and - to our benefit! - has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, 'Now we finally know ourselves.'
avoid country germany guarantee life occupied pulled question shows since tin
How did it happen that an enlightened country like Germany was pulled into Nazism? That question has occupied me since 'The Tin Drum,' my first book. The story also shows that we can never know how a person's life will unfold; there is no guarantee that a person will do what is right and avoid what is not right.
besides enjoyed older speaks united
Auschwitz speaks against even a right to self-determination that is enjoyed by all other peoples because one of the preconditions for the horror, besides other, older urges, was a strong and united Germany.
cultural economic european turns union
The European Union arose on an economic foundation, and it turns out that even this is not a solid base. Cultural identity has been neglected.
crawl likes pedant tends
Memory likes to play hide-and-seek, to crawl away. It tends to hold forth, to dress up, often needlessly. Memory contradicts itself; pedant that it is, it will have its way.