18+ Ismail Kadaré Quotes (Imaginative, Poetic And Political)

Ismail Kadaré is an Albanian novelist, poet, and essayist. He is considered one of the most important contemporary writers in the Albanian language and has been a leading literary figure in Albania since the 1960s. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages and have won numerous international awards.

If an animal has to be sacrificed when a new bridge is built, what will it take to build a whole new world? — Ismail Kadaré

The days were heavy and sticky. All identical, one the same as the other. Soon they would even get rid of their one remaining distinction, the shell of their names: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. — Ismail Kadaré

To tell the truth, this was one of the few cases in which she had not told him just what she was thinking. Usually, she let him know whatever thoughts happened to come to her, and indeed he never took it amiss if she let slip a word that might pain him, because when all was said and done that was the price one paid for sincerity. — Ismail Kadaré

I had three choices: to conform to my own beliefs, which meant death; complete silence, which meant another kind of death; to pay a tribute, a bribe. I chose the third solution by writing The Long Winter. — Ismail Kadaré

Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship. — Ismail Kadaré

Who in the world has not yearned for a loved one, has never said, If only he or she could come back just once, just one more time...? Despite the fact that it can never happen, never ever. Surely this is the saddest thing about our mortal world, and its sadness will go on shrouding human life like a blanket of fog until its final extinction. — Ismail Kadaré

Winter hurled more wind and rain at the city than it ever had before. Clouds dashed about in all directions emptying their thunder, hail and rain. The horizon was choked in fog. — Ismail Kadaré

Shiny musical instruments wailed, their mouths open like lilies. — Ismail Kadaré

His suspicion that he was not going in the right direction tortmented him more and more. At last he had the conviction that he would never go anywhere but in the wrong direction, to the very end of the handful of days that was left to him, unhappy moonstruck pilgrim, whose April was to be cut off short. — Ismail Kadaré

A mountaineer’s house, before being his home and the home of his family, is the home of God and of guests. — Ismail Kadaré

And everything would be different, different. — Ismail Kadaré

The writer is always to some extent in exile, wherever he is, because he is somehow outside, separated from others; there is always a distance. — Ismail Kadaré

In our city spring came from the sky, not from the soil, which was ruled by stone that recognizes no seasonal change. The change of the season could be glimpsed in the thinning of clouds, the appearance of the birds and the occasional rainbow. — Ismail Kadaré

Can a country's people be better than its planes? — Ismail Kadaré

I could not understand how people could not like something as beautiful as the aerodrome. But I had lately become convinced that in general people were pretty boring. They liked to moan for hours on end about how hard it was to make ends meet, about the money they owed, the price of food, and other similar worries, but the minute some more brilliant or attractive subject come up, they were struck deaf. — Ismail Kadaré

It was only a phrase that went from mouth to mouth and was never quite swallowed. — Ismail Kadaré

Can one move an empire as if it were a house? — Ismail Kadaré

An Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.’ Of God and the guest, you see. So before it is the house of its master, it is the house of one’s guest. The guest, in an Albanian’s life, represents the supreme ethical category, more important than blood relations. One may pardon the man who spills the blood of one’s father or of one’s son, but never the blood of a guest. — Ismail Kadaré

Life Lessons by Ismail Kadaré

1. Ismail Kadaré's work emphasizes the importance of standing up for what you believe in and fighting for justice, even in the face of adversity.
2. He also encourages readers to think critically about the world around them and to recognize the power of storytelling to shape our understanding of history and our place in it.
3. Kadaré's work also highlights the importance of understanding and appreciating cultural differences, and the need to strive for peace and unity in the face of conflict.