Heinrich Böll Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

Happiness washes away many things, just as suffering washes away many things.

Heinrich Böll
I don't trust Catholics," I said, "because they take advantage of you." "And Protestants?" he asked with a laugh. "I loathe the way they fumble around with their consciences." "And atheists?" He was still laughing. "They bore me because all they ever talk about is God.

Heinrich Böll
An artist is like a woman who can do nothing but love, and who succumbs to every stray male jackass.

Heinrich Böll
One ought to go too far, in order to know how far one can go.

Heinrich Böll
He avoids the official "heroes'" cemetery, done in such impeccable taste. (Why, he wonders, do the Germans do so much for their dead and so little for the living?)

Heinrich Böll
Soon can mean in one second, Soon can mean in one year. Soon is a terrible word. This Soon compresses the future, shrinks it, offers no certainty, no certainty whatever, it stands for absolute uncertainty. Soon is nothing and Soon is a lot. Soon is everything. Soon is death…

Heinrich Böll
A family without a black sheep is not a typical family.

Heinrich Böll
Creativity is not limited to people practising one of the traditional forms of art, and even in the case of artists, creativity is not confined to the exercise of their art. Each one of us has a creative potential, which is hidden by competitiveness and success-aggression. To recognize, explore and develop this potential is the task of the School. Creation – whether it be a painting, sculpture, symphony or novel – involves not merely talent, intuition, powers of imagination and application, but also the ability to shape material that could be expanded to other socially relevant spheres.

Heinrich Böll
Behind every word a whole world is hidden that must be imagined.

Heinrich Böll
History and fiction must complement one another.

Heinrich Böll