gaarder speaks.
“I sat thinking how terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as incredible as living. One day we suddenly take the fact that we exist for granted - and then, yes, then we don’t think about it anymore until we are about to leave the world again.”
— Jostein Gaarder; “The Solitaire Mystery”
“A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The brain surgeon was a Christian but the astronaut was not. The astronaut said, ‘I’ve been out in space many times but I’ve never seen God or angels.’ And the brain surgeon said, ‘And I’ve operated on many clever brains but I’ve never seen a single thought.’”
— Jostein Gaarder; “The Solitaire Mystery”
“A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He’s not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He’s not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn’t belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anybody missing him.”
— Jostein Gaarder; “The Solitaire Mystery”
“Superstitious.” What a strange word. If you believed in Christianity or Islam, it was called “faith”. But if you believed in astrology or Friday the thirteenth it was superstition! Who had the right to call other peeople’s belief superstition?”
— Jostein Gaarder; “Sophie’s World”
“Although you may not stumble across a Martian in the garden, you might stumble across yourself. The day that happens, you’ll probably also scream a little. And that’ll be perfectly all right, because it’s not every day you realize you’re a living planet dweller on a little island in the universe.”
— Jostein Gaarder; “The Solitaire Mystery”
Odd how there are so many quotes from “The Solitaire Mystery” when “The Ringmaster’s Daughter” is in fact my favourite of the lot. But “The Solitaire Mystery” was my first Jostein Gaarder book, and it’s a good first book to fall for Gaarder’s magical word-weaving.
I’ve yet to finish reading “The Castle in the Pyrenees”.
(I’m currently distracted by Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, which I’ve had for years but never could start reading. Until now. More than 800 pages of glory, and I can’t seem to put it down. It won’t fit my bag but what the hell, I’m bringing it everywhere with me.)
