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b006caf
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I applied my reason at every moment. Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.
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Yann Martel |
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e4e7f54
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Isn't telling about something--using words, English or Japanese--already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention? The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?
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Yann Martel |
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d17b514
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A zoo is a cultural institution. Like a public library, like a museum, it is at the service of popular education and science. And by that token, not much of a money-making venture for the Greater Good and the Greater Profit are not compatible aims.
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Yann Martel |
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addf078
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Or rather, since Christians are so fond of capital letters, a Story.
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Yann Martel |
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ed39786
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yhjr lns bsbb tfqm lqlq, bsbb l'Hss lmqyt b'nhm mhm `mlw bjdin fln y'tyhm `mlhm bntyj@, w'n my`mrwnh fy sn@ qd ydmrh l'khrwn fy ywm. bsbb l'Hss b'n lmstqbl mqfl, w'nhm w n dbrw 'mwrhm fln ytmknw mn tdbyr 'mwr 'Tflhm. bsbb lHss b'n shyy'an ln ytGyr, w'n ls`d@ w lzdhr mmknn fqT fy mkn akhr.
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Yann Martel |
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3e2267b
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It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of another faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them--and then they leap.
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Yann Martel |
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dc42bf3
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It was a placid explosion of orange and red, a great chromatic symphony, a colour canvas of supernatural proportions, truly a splendid Pacific sunset, quite wasted on me.
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Yann Martel |
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092b608
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Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn't stay dry.
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life-of-pi
metaphor
pain
suffering
time
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Yann Martel |
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5ccbe1a
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This story has a happy ending.
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Yann Martel |
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d228558
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I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusion about freedom plague them both.
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illusion
religion
zoo
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Yann Martel |
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3734af7
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Music is a bird's answer to the noise and heaviness of words. It puts the mind in a state of exhilerated speechlessness.
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Yann Martel |
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7560eef
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It seems to be a law of human nature that those who live by the sea are suspicious of swimmers, just as those who live in the mountains are suspicious of mountain climbers.
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humans
people
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Yann Martel |
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152e5ce
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Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? Why climb this Mount Everest of formalities that makes you feel like a beggar? Why enter this jungle of foreignness where everything is new, strange and difficult? The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.
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Yann Martel |
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e8fcf3e
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The most beautiful rooms I have entered have been empty ones. Warehouses full of light and dust. Empty attics with a view. Coastlines. Prairies.
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Yann Martel |
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eabaf21
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Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel, Indian citizen, is an astounding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances. In the experience of this investigator, his story is unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks. Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.
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Yann Martel |
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d1f40cf
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Once you've been struck by violence, you acquire companions that never leave you entirely: Suspicion, Fear, Anxiety, Despair, Joylessness.
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Yann Martel |
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c2a3753
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And so, in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge.
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Yann Martel |
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ae96da4
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The clear liquid in our eyes is seawater and therefore there are fish in our eyes, seawater being the natural medium of fish. Since blue and green are the colours of the richest seawater, blue and green eyes are the fishiest. Dark eyes are somewhat less fecund and albino eyes are nearly fishless, sadly so. But the quantity of fish in an eye means nothing. A single tigerfish can be as beautiful, as powerful, as an entire school of seafaring ..
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Yann Martel |
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e81bf05
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Like punk rock, like Jackson Pollock, like Jack Kerouac, it was truly human, a mix of perfect beauty and cathartic error.
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music
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Yann Martel |
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f1eb0d3
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Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can
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Yann Martel |
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2bea513
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nature as a whole was an exceptionally fine illustration of science.
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science
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Yann Martel |
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d49e592
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If you become sick yourself, don't waste your vomit by sending it overboard. Vomit makes an excellent border guard. Puke on the edges of your territory.
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Yann Martel |
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9bbc998
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What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell.
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Yann Martel |
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fa761cc
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Kalau kita, para warga negara, tidak memberikan dukungan kepada seniman-seniman kita, berarti kita telah mengorbankan imajinasi kita di altas realitas yang kejam, dan pada akhirnya kita jadi tidak percaya pada apapun, dan mimpi-mimpi kita tidak lagi berarti.
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imajinasi
mimpi
percaya
seniman
warga-negara
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Yann Martel |
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097ee0e
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Strach to jedyny prawdziwy przeciwnik zycia.
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Yann Martel |
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847652d
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I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful.
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Yann Martel |
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f511e07
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The men nodded vigorously at me. When they took hold of me and lifted me in their strong arms, I thought nothing of it. I thought they were helping me. I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts.
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shipwrecks
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Yann Martel |
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863a43b
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But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian.
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christianity
life-of-pi
religion
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Yann Martel |
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ec9770b
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I'm just trying to help" "Do your uncle's bonsai eat meat?" "I don't think so" "Have you ever been bitten by one of his bonsai?" "No." "In that case, your uncle's bonsai are not helping us"
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Yann Martel |
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fee0a2d
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Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting--that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art--and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to. Then complete strangers told him that his book had filled a hole in them, had answered a question..
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book
creativity
curiosity
inspirational
joy
life
painting
strangers
writer
writers-on-writing
writing
writing-life
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Yann Martel |
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4f58a48
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I thought I would run out of paper. It was the pens that ran out.
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Yann Martel |
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12b056b
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the senile, lecherous expression of a camel.
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yann martel |
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2fe8a5c
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The reason death sticks do closely to life isn't biological necessity-it"s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only an thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."
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Yann Martel |
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be8efaa
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It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with with little trouble. You become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapo..
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Yann Martel |
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8e23b73
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A germ of religious exaltation, no bigger than a mustard seed.
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Yann Martel |
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8b1859e
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Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others.
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Yann Martel |
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5a63898
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An epic simplicity
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Yann Martel |
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265f83d
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Reason is my prophet and it tells me that as a watch stops, so we die. It's the end. If the watch doesn't work properly, it must be fixed here and now by us.
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Yann Martel |
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df9bfe0
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It's a joke in the zoo business, a weary joke, that the paperwork involved in trading a shrew weighs more than an elephant, that the paperwork involved in trading an elephant weighs more than a whale, and that you must never try to trade a whale, never.
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paperwork
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Yann Martel |
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524c9e5
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Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life.
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Yann Martel |
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3dd5cc2
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I am careful never to talk about religion. Who am I to kick at people's crutches?
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Yann Martel |
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4f0acae
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Nil magnum nisi bonum. No greatness without goodness.
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Yann Martel |
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f59895a
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These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil within that has been let out.
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Yann Martel |
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364d9d2
|
The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous possessive love that grabs at it what it can.
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Yann Martel |