Home / Quote / – “Literature is Freedom: The Friedenspreis Acceptance Speech,” from At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, 2007

– “Literature is Freedom: The Friedenspreis Acceptance Speech,” from At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, 2007

“To have access to literature, world literature, was to escape the prison of national vanity, of philistinism, of compulsory provincialism, of inane schooling, of imperfect destinies and bad luck. Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom.”