Yann Martel: Quotes about life

“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 book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love , Life , Death , Beauty

“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud…”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 1, p. 6
Context: 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. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.

Love , Life , Death , Beauty

“When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , Pain , Suffering

“If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love , Life , God , Lovers

“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , Way

“The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?
Doesn't that make life a story?”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , World , Way , Understanding

“Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life

“I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Hurtful , Life , Hurt

“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous possessive love that grabs at what it can.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love , Life , Death , Beauty

“Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon?… The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , People , World , Hope

“It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , Night

“Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness--how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view of things? This peephole is all I've got!”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life

“I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful.”

Yann Martel

Life

“Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn’t be more simple, nor the stakes higher.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , Game

“Just as music is noise that makes sense, a painting is colour that makes sense, so a story is life that makes sense.”

Yann Martel book Beatrice and Virgil

Source: Beatrice and Virgil

Life , Music , Sense , Painting

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

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life , Hunger , Sense , Selfishness

“Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: Things didn't turn out the way they're supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.
Source: Life of Pi

Life , Way

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

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 56, p. 178

Life , Fear

“It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse." Page 316”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
Source: Life of Pi

Life , Heart

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 7, p. 31

Life