Quotes from book
Wonderful, Wonderful Times

Wonderful, Wonderful Times
Elfriede JelinekOriginal title Die Ausgesperrten (German, 1980)

Wonderful, Wonderful Times is a novel by Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, published in 1980 by Rowohlt Verlag. It is Jelinek's fifth book. An English version, translated by Michael Hulse, was released in 1990 by Serpent's Tail. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1982.

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“We are monsters, even if we disguise ourselves as ordinary people. We are the children of ordinary people but we are not content with that. Inwardly we are consumed with wickedness, outwardly we are grammar school pupils.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“In the old days people had no time to harm the environment because they were busy doing harm to themselves, in the War, for instance.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

60
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“The world would be a lot better off if it paid more attention to its philosophers and artists than to its own tiny egotistic spirit, which lacks an overview. People should place their belief in Beethoven and Socrates.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 40
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“The rules of art do not exist, because what makes art art is the fact that it obeys no rules at all.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 44
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Time stands still for man and woman alike, it is a good moment, because Time usually makes everything worse, poor people grow old, rich people can buy a little time but they can'hold it up for good, it always catches up with them. In the last analysis, Time is democratic.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

123
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“The most powerful urge known to Man is the urge to be free of manual labour. Any means that accomplishes that end is fine. Some people erroneously imagine that they have a birthright to non-manual work.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

60
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“weak are defeated by the strong in the world of Nature. A reed by the north wind, for instance. And silence by the forest.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

109
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“For the eyes are the mirror of the soul and ought to remain unscathed if at all possible. Otherwise people will suppose the soul is done for.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 7
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“The poet is a king in his realm. His is empire of imagination, in which there are unlimited mansions.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

P 179
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Stifter tells us that people are not free, that they are slaves to the laws of Nature. So you have to commit violent deeds (if you don’t have anyone to do other kinds of deeds with), actions that ordinary people would call crimes but which we define as the norm, though of course it is our norm and no that of the rest.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

55
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Every man would like to possess all the women in the world, but a woman only wants the man she loves and to whom she is faithful.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

113
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Work is not a constraint. Man's activity provides his true fulfilment. True fulfilment however, can only be achieved if one man is not another man's slave.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

73
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Murder and assault are not lunacy; they are the logical conclusions if you live a life without an assured financial foundation.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

P 189
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“Rainer [protagonist in the novel], who is reading The Outsider by Camus, says he would like to put the hostility of the world behind him. Once your hope for something better is taken from you, then at last you have the present all in your hand. Then you yourself are reality. Others are extras. When Rainer contemplated san evening he says that evening is melancholy ceasefire where all life has come to and end.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

53
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“In this new era, what sets you free is knowledge, not work.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 33,34
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“In the case of a writer like Musil writing is often a graceful act, like a silvery fish leaping.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 37
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

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