Characters on stage should be flat, like clothes in a fashion show: what you get should be no more than what you see. Psychological realism is repulsive, because it allows us to escape unpalatable reality by taking shelter in the “luxuriousness” of personality, losing ourselves in the depth of individual character. The writer's task is to block this manoeuvre, to chase us off to a point from which we can view the horror with a dispassionate eye.
Elfriede JelinekI have the feeling it will influence my future writing to the extent that without any material worries I could develop a greater ease, even lightheartedness, in my writing
Elfriede JelinekAs is said about most writers: on the one hand all I ever did from when I was a child was read, and I was a loner, which was furthered by my parents and my upbringing.
Elfriede JelinekI think isolation is one of the greatest problems, an ever-growing obstacle to political solidarity.
Elfriede JelinekStrictly speaking, there are no holidays for art; art pursues you everywhere, and that's just fine with the artist.
Elfriede Jelinekyou have often seen in the cinema, erich, haven't you, that between extraordinary people extraordinary things like for example extraordinary love can arise. so we only have to be extraordinary and see what happens.
Elfriede JelinekMy plays are made up of long monologues, which is similar to prose working with the language
Elfriede JelinekAnna despises two classes of people: first, those who own their own homes and have cars and families, and second, everybody else. Constantly she is on the verge of exploding. With rage. A pool of pure red. The pool is filled with speechlessness that talks away at her nonstop.
Elfriede JelinekLiterature that keeps employing new linguistic and formal modes of expression to draft a panorama of society as a whole while at the same time exposing it, tearing the masks from its face - for me that would be deserving of an award.
Elfriede JelinekAfter all, when you take a walk you're after solitude, and if the solitude won't come to you, you must go to it.
Elfriede JelinekIt could draw from a greater reservoir of freedom. The irony could develop an even greater ease.
Elfriede JelinekI cannot stand public attention, I just can't. Of course, if I may I might write something instead
Elfriede JelinekEvery day, a piece of music, a short story, or a poem dies because its existence is no longer justified in our time. And things that were once considered immortal have become mortal again, no one knows them anymore. Even though they deserve to survive.
Elfriede JelinekThe first thing a proprietor learns, and painfully at that, is: Trust is fine, but control is better.
Elfriede Jelinek