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The Tidings of the Trees

Book by Wolfgang Hilbig · 4 quotes · Provincialism, Small Towns, Big Cities

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All Provincialism Small Towns Big Cities Big City Ghosts Of The Past Overthinking Regret Writers Block Writing

The Tidings of the Trees Quotes

“From sheer nervousness, or to linger for a moment, I'd urinate at the wayside; scanning the darkness before me, a cherry stump behind me, I'd piss a meticulous semicircle in the ashes at my feet. Crossing this line and looking back as I walked onward, I'd think I saw foggy vapors rise from the place I'd circled with my water, and those vapors took on almost human form, those figures' spectral silhouettes beckoned, and words came, barely audible: Don't forget us! -- They couldn't follow me; their souls were bound; I'd nailed them to the imaginary cross of a nonexistent cherry tree.”

Regret Ghosts Of The Past

Book:The Tidings of the Trees

Source: The Tidings of the Trees

“What people that town produces! Nothing but dead, useless things come out of the town and can pass across the borders. Perhaps we used to be something like that ... there's no one here but people who never learned to make their fortune in town. Out here, it has the advantage that it can't be confused with fortune. Here no one needs to deceive himself. Here no one needs to forget.”

Small Towns Provincialism Big City

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Source: The Tidings of the Trees

“What people that town produces! Nothing but dead, useless things come out of the town and can pass across the borders. Perhaps we used to be something like that ... there's no one here but people who never learned to make their fortune in town. And people who prefer misfortune out here to misfortune in town. Out here, it has the advantage that it can't be confused with fortune. Here no one needs to deceive himself. Here no one needs to forget.”

Big Cities Small Towns Provincialism

Book:The Tidings of the Trees

Source: The Tidings of the Trees

“Oh, how I've envied the lives of those who could spend life sitting down. A place to sit, a place to sit! I'd lament, circling my empty chair.”

Writing Overthinking Writers Block

Book:The Tidings of the Trees

Source: The Tidings of the Trees