Quotessence
Home / Authors / Walter Moers Books
Walter Moers

Walter Moers Books

Author

Related Quotes

“Picture to yourself the most beautiful girl imaginable! She was so beautiful that there would be no point, in view of my meagre talent for storytelling, in even trying to put her beauty into words. That would far exceed my capabilities, so I'll refrain from mentioning whether she was a blonde or a brunette or a redhead, or whether her hair was long or short or curly or smooth as silk. I shall also refrain from the usual comparisons where her complexion was concerned, for instance milk, velvet, satin, peaches and cream, honey or ivory, Instead, I shall leave it entirely up to your imagination to fill in this blank with your own ideal of feminine beauty.”

LoveImaginationBeautyStorytellingWalter Moers
Book:The Alchemaster's Apprentice: A Culinary Tale from Zamonia by Optimus Yarnspinner
Create image

“There were adventure stories supplied with cloths for mopping your brow, thrillers containing pressed leaves of soothing valerian to be sniffed when the suspense became too great, and books with stout locks sealed by the Atlantean censorship authorities ("Sale permitted, reading prohibited!"). One shop sold nothing but 'half' works that broke off in the middle because their author had died while writing them; another specialised in novels whose protagonists were insects. I also saw a Wolperting shop that sold nothing but books on chess and another patronised exclusively by dwarfs with blond beards, all of whom wore eye-shades.”

Books
Book:The City of Dreaming Books
Create image

“Approaching the forest from the west was no army, but a delegation of Grailsundanian master surgeons on their way to an appendix conference . . . But that isn't the craziest part of the story - oh, no, my boy, for approaching from the east was a party of itinerant watchmakers bound for the pocket-watch fair at Wimbleton . . . But not even that is the craziest part of the story! For apporaching from the south were over a hundred armourers and locksmiths on their way to Florinth, where some power-hungry prince had commissioned them to build a monstrous war machine . . . Well, that would be enough crazy coincedences for an averagely crazy story but the battle of Nurn Forest involved the most improbable coincedences in the history of Zamonia. For entering the forest, this time from the north came a delegation of alchemists.”

FunnySurgeonsImprobableAlchemistsArmourersCoincedenceLocksmithsWatchmakers
Book:Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
Create image

“I will quote one sentence from this text, namely, the one with which it ended. It was also the sentence which finally dissolved the writer’s block that had inhibited the author from starting work. I have since used it whenever I myself have been gripped by fear of the blank sheet in front of me. It is infallible, and its effect is always the same: the knot unravels and a stream of words gushes out on to the virgin paper. It acts like a magic spell and I sometimes fancy it really is one. But, even if it isn’t the work of a sorcerer, it is certainly the most brilliant sentence any writer has ever devised. It runs: ‘This is where my story begins.’”

InspirationalWritingStories
Book:The City of Dreaming Books
Create image

“Aber dein Gehirn ist ein Dschungel wie jedes andere Gehirn auch. Ein wilder, gefährlicher, gnaden- und gesetzloser Urwald voller unberechenbarer Kreaturen. Pferkte Ordnung und totales Chaos, Diktatur und Anarchie, freier Wille und irrer Zwang, Fressen und Gefressenwerden - all das existiert darin. [...] jedes Gehirn ist anders verrückt. Aber auf keinen Fall ist es nur - auch nicht deins.”

GehirnAlbtraumNeurologiePrinzessin Insomnia
Book:Prinzessin Insomnia & der alptraumfarbene Nachtmahr
Create image

“Eines Tages betrachtete mein Freund sein Bild im Spiegel. Sah zu, wie perfekt sein Spiegelbild seine Grimassen und Verrenkungen nachmachte, wie vollkommen es die Wirklichkeit imitierte. Und er dachte: Ich will so werden wie dieses Wesen im Spiegel. Ich will genauso gut das Leben imitieren können. Ich will genauso einsam sein." Der Schattenkönig verstummte für einen Augenblick. "Klingt so, als ob dein Freund kurz davor war, den Verstand zu verlieren", rutschte es mir heraus. "So, als ob er mal den Kopfdoktor konsultieren sollte." Der Schattenkönig lachte schrecklich. "Ja, das dachte er auch manchmal. Aber die Krankheit erreichte nie dieses gnädige Ausmaß, das ihm den Aufenthalt in einer geschlossenen Anstalt eingebracht und die Arbeit erspart hätte. Zum Irren langte es nicht ganz. Nur zum Dichter.”

PoesieIrrsinn
Book:The City of Dreaming Books
Create image

“In my profession it isn’t a question of telling good literature from bad. Really good literature is seldom appreciated in its own day. The best authors die poor, the bad ones make money — it’s always been like that. What do I, an agent, get out of a literary genius who won’t be discovered for another hundred years? I’ll be dead myself then. Successful incompetents are what I need.”

NeedsYearsDiesLiteraturePoorSuccessfulGeniusHundredProfessionAgentsMaking MoneyAppreciatedGood Literature
Book:The City of Dreaming Books
Create image

“The problem is this: in order to make money- lots of money- we don't need flawless literary masterpieces. What we need is mediocre rubbish, trash suitable for mass consumption. More and more, bigger and bigger blockbusters of less and less significance. What counts is the paper we sell, not the words that are printed on it.”

NeedsProblemOrderPaperMassBiggerSellsMaking MoneySignificanceLots Of MoneyConsumptionMediocreMasterpieceTrashPrintedSuitableRubbishFlawlessBlockbusterMass Consumption
Author:Walter Moers
Create image

“This is wine," Ghoolion said solemnly. "Wine is drinkable sunlight. It's the most glorious summer's day imaginable, captured in a bottle. Wine can be a melody in a cut-glass goblet, but it can also be a cacophony in a dirty tumbler, or a rainy autumn night, or a funeral march that scorches your tongue.”

SaidNightCuttingSummerWineGlassesTongueDirtyGloriousAutumnMarchMelodyBottlesFuneralSunlightCapturedRainyCacophonyAutumn Nights
Book:The Alchemaster's Apprentice: A Novel
Create image

“Sometimes, in the course of my hopeless quest, I would pick up and dip into one of the ordinary books that lay strewn around the castle. Whenever I did, it seemed so insipid and insubstantial that I flew into a rage and hurled it at the wall after reading the first few sentences. I was spoilt for any other form of literature, and the mental torment I endured was comparable to the agony of unrequited love compounded by the withdrawal symptoms associated with a severe addiction.”

LoveFirstsBookSometimesAgeFormCoursesReadingLiteratureWallOrdinaryPicksLaysAddictionSentencesRageHopelessQuestsAgonyUnrequited LoveSevereTormentSymptomsCastlesFlewUnrequitedDipWithdrawalInsipidSpoilt
Author:Walter Moers
Create image