“So the fact that there's someone who's planning what happens to the characters, writing it down, means that the characters always have a fate. And when we think about fate, we tend think of it as the thing we would have if we were literary characters, that is, if there were somebody out there, writing us.” IfsThinkingWritingMeanCharacterFactsHappensFatePlanningLiterary Characters Author:Daniel Kehlmann
“When I look at life I try to be as agnostic and unmetaphysical as possible. So I have to admit that, most probably, we do not have a fate. But I think that's something that draws us to novels - that the characters always have a fate. Even if it's a terrible fate, at least they have one.” IfsThinkingTryingLooksCharacterNovelFateTerribleDrawsAgnostic Author:Daniel Kehlmann
“Usually the German translators do something terrible, especially with Tom Wolfe, which is that they make it local. So if the characters are from Harlem, the translators put all this Berlin slang into their mouths, and that's just terrible. You cringe when you read that. But there really is no good solution to the problem, except learning English.” IfsCharacterProblemTerribleSolutionsMouthsLocalsTomsBerlinHarlemTranslatorsCringeSlangLearning English Author:Daniel Kehlmann
