Sven Quotes

Material is more important than method. ~ Sven Kohlhaas

Colonel Sven Haverstrom of the Dalbreck Royal Guard, Assigned Steward of Crown Prince Jaxon. The others laughed at that title. They were free with their jest and jabs, even with an officer who outranked them, but Sven gave it back as good as he got it.
Officer Jeb McCance, Falworth Special Forces.
Officer Tavish Baird, Tactician, Fourth Battalion.
Officer Orrin del Aransas, Falworth First Archer Assault Unit. ~ Mary E. Pearson

Scholes was England's best football player. It was impossible to take the ball from him, and he never mishit a pass. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

Sometimes I think that the long-term work of reading is to discover one by one, the books that hold the scattered elements of our nature, after which the true consummation can begin. We undertake the gradual focused exploration, nuance by nuance, of their meanings, their implications; we follow out the strands that mysteriously connect the words of another with the unformulated stuff of the self. ~ Sven Birkerts

[On England's elimination from the 2002 World Cup after losing 2-1 to Brazil] Never was Steven Gerrard more noticeably missed, for his ability to pass, rather than kick the ball over 40 yards and for his steely mentality. Not for the first time, Eriksson's substitutions were baffling. The situation cried for Joe Cole, the one England player with a trick to beat a man, but it was the convalescent Kieron Dyer who was sent on, in place of Sinclair. Owen, never fully fit, was withdrawn after 80 minutes, at which stage Eriksson sent on Darius Vassell and Teddy Sheringham in a move which smacked of desperation, rather than tactical nous. From Sven-Goran Eriksson: The Final Reckoning ~ Joe Lovejoy

it was not so much the new machines that revolutionized the world, impressive and important as they were. The truly heroic invention was the economic, social, and political institutions in which these machines were embedded. ~ Sven Beckert

The books that matter to me ... are those that galvanize something inside me. I read books to read myself. ~ Sven Birkerts

He took a deep breath of air. Once again he caught a strangeness on the wind, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, neither odor nor perfume - just strange, and curiously exciting. "Superintendent, what's that smell? Casey noticed it too, the moment Sven opened the door." Armstrong hesitated. Then he smiled. "That's Hong Kong's very own, Mr. Bartlett. It's money. ~ James Clavell

Yeah." Sven said. "The stuff she just said. Let's not get all killy. ~ Jesse Petersen

A book is solitude, privacy; it is a way of holding the self apart from the crush of the outer world. ~ Sven Birkerts

Sex parties, alcohol and drugs lost their appeal to Sven after a while. Music never did, in his continual search for that sober connection
intimacy with one person over a long period of time, as opposed to periods of intimacy with a bunch of random faces. ~ Jess C. Scott

A poem is a construction of inner space.
Language is to inner space as light is to material space. ~ Sven Birkerts

I'll eat whatever you put in front of me." He grinned uneasily, eyeing the egg. "You'll not toss that at my head, will you?"
"This?" Helena held the light brown egg between thumb and forefinger. "Why would I do that?"
Sven glanced from Hakan to Helena. She cupped the egg and let it roll across her palm.
"Helena." Hakan's voice threaded with warning. "Twould please me greatly to have my eggs cooked this morn."
She gave the egg a small toss and it plopped into her palm intact. "As you wish. ~ Gina Conkle

I often heard this melodious hymn again in days of hardship, and it always affected me painfully. Not as the reproachful warning clang of church bells ringing for service, when I pass a church door without going in, but because the men sang the hymn only when they were out of spirits and considered our position desperate. It seemed as though they would remind me that defeat awaited me, and that this time I had aimed too high. ~ Sven Hedin

David [Beckham] should think that talking is silver, but being quiet is golden. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

Images, not words, capture feelings in faces; nothing
can ruin the atmosphere as easily as too much light. ~ Sven Nykvist

Can we feel contrition for other people's crimes? Can we feel contrition for crimes we have not committed personally, but have subsequently profited from? How can we formulate the criteria for contrition to make them applicable to collective responsibility for historical crimes? Perhaps like this:
We freely admit that our predecessors have done wrong and that we are profiting from it.
We ask forgiveness of those who were wronged and of their descendants.
We promise to do our best to make amends to those who were wronged for the effects that still remain.
The larger the collective, the more diluted the personal responsibility. The less intimate the contrition, the greater the risk that it will just be hollow ceremony. ~ Sven Lindqvist

Light can be gentle, dangerous, dreamlike, bare, living, dead, misty, clear, hot, dark, violet, springlike, falling, straight, sensual, limited, poisonous, calm and soft. ~ Sven Nykvist

I speak as an unregenerate reader, one who still believes that language and not technology is the true evolutionary miracle. I have not yet given up on the idea that the experience of literature offers a kind of wisdom that cannot be discovered elsewhere; that there is profundity in the verbal encounter itself, never mind what further profundities that author has to offer; and that for a host of reasons the bound book is the ideal vehicle for the written word. ~ Sven Birkerts

Football is much harder if you don't have the ball. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

It was fantastic to dive from the side of the boat into the dark waters, for as you hit them they burst into a firework display of greeny-gold phosphorescence so that you felt as though you were diving into a fire. Swimming under water, people left trails of phosphorescence behind them like a million tiny stars and when finally Leonora, who was the last one to come aboard, hauled herself up, her whole body for a brief moment looked as though it was encased in gold.
"My God, she's lovely," said Larry admiringly, "but I'm sure she's a lesbian. She resists all my advances."
"She's certainly very lovely," said Sven, "so beautiful, in fact, that it almost makes me wish I weren't a homosexual. However, there are advantages to being homosexual."
"I think to be bisexual is best," said Larry, "then you've got the best of both worlds, as it were. ~ Gerald Durrell

People decide how to live their own lives! A scum bastard doesn't have the right to chain anyone down! -Sven to Torneo ~ Kentaro Yabuki

Everything in contemporary society discourages interiority. More and more of our exchanges take place via circuits, and in their very nature those interactions are such as to keep us hovering in the virtual now, a place away from ourselves. ~ Sven Birkerts

Mexican cinematographers Gabriel Figueroa and Emilio Fernandez were students of both Sergei Eisenstein and Toland. Their exteriors and lighting were gorgeous. And the films Ingmar Bergman did with Sven Nykvist were exceptional. ~ Vilmos Zsigmond

It's an incredible rise to stardom. At 17 you're more likely to get a call from Michael Jackson than Sven Goran Eriksson. ~ Gordon Strachan

Yes. I'm going to talk to her. Maybe." Kristoff huffed. "You, Bulda, Grand Pabbie... you act like this is so easy! They may be so-called love experts, but they've never left the valley."
Sven snorted.
"Hi," Anna interrupted, feeling funny. She was suddenly very aware of how she looked, and how he did, too. Kristoff had on a bright blue dress shirt and clean pants. She was wearing a green dress under a flour-and-icing-covered apron. Her braids, which she'd had in for two days, needed refreshing. "Were you looking for me? I mean, not actually looking, but you're here, so maybe... you're hungry?"
He immediately blushed. "What? Yes. I mean, no. I..." He pressed a bunch of carrots into her hands. "I just wanted to give you what I owed you."
"Oh." Anna looked down. "You didn't have to bring me back- oof!"
Sven had bumped into Anna, sending her flying into Kristoff's arms. The two tumbled backward, falling onto several stacks of flour Anna's parents hadn't had a chance to bring into the shop yet.
"This is awkward," Anna said, struggling to get up. 'Not because you're awkward. Because we're... I'm... awkward." She stood up. "You're gorgeous. Wait, what? ~ Jen Calonita

Where am I when I am involved in a book? ~ Sven Birkerts

To be the England manager you must win every game, not do anything in your private life and hopefully not earn too much money! ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

It is in adolescence that most of us grasp that life--our own life--is a problem to be solved, that a set of personal unknowns must now be factored together with the frightening variables of experience. The future suddenly appears--it is the space upon which the answers will be inscribed. ~ Sven Birkerts

Eve: I don't understand this word ... "Freedom." Does it mean ... I do what I want?
Sven: Yes.
Eve: Then I wouldn't have to kill anymore?
Sven: No more killing. ~ Kentaro Yabuki

Through the clouds of smoke I seemed to see all old Asia before me, and the adventures of past years behind me. A carnival of old camp-scenes danced before my mind's eye, expiring like shooting-stars in the night - merry songs which came to an end among other mountains and the dying sound of strings and flutes. And I was surprised that I had not had enough of these things and that I was not tired of the light of camp-fires. ~ Sven Hedin

The Norweigian philosopher Tonnesen said that to think about anything but death is evasion. Society, art, culture, the whole of civilisation is nothing but evasion, one great collective self delusion, the intention of which is to make us forget that all the time we are falling through the air, at every moment getting closer to death. ~ Sven Lindqvist

If anything has changed about my reading over the years, it is that I value the state a book puts me in more that I value the specific contents. ~ Sven Birkerts

In my dream I see the sea, the utterly calm sea. I see the coast, the utterly calm coast. When this utterly calm sea meets the utterly still coast, huge breakers are suddenly thrown up. Two sorts of stillness touch one and other and explode in roars and foam. ~ Sven Lindqvist

You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions. ~ Sven Lindqvist

Racism watching is a puzzle solving activity and often involves debunking pseudo-science. The investigator must try to figure out what makes people believe in weird ideas. As Stieg said in an interview, 'Fifty years later, people still believe in this; the whole Neo-Nazi movement. There is absolutely no sense in this. They do it contrary to everything science tells us. Contrary to human goodness or altruism, contrary to rational thinking. And this is fascinating, why? ~ Eric Bronson

What reading does...is keep alive the dangerous and exhilarating idea that life is not sequenced of lived moments, but a destiny. ~ Sven Birkerts

I often find that a novel, even a well-written and compelling novel, can become a blur to me soon after I've finished reading it. I recollect perfectly the feeling of reading it, the mood I occupied, but I am less sure about the narrative details. It is almost as if the book were, as Wittgenstein said of his propositions, a ladder to be climbed and then discarded after it has served its purpose. ~ Sven Birkerts

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. And in any ONE of them you can decide to CHANGE your life. Tick tock tick tock. ~ Sven Paardekooper

Whichever country you are, if you lose games you are criticised. It's only when it's England it's like a new world war. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

away from fast food - for three weeks already. And I was starting to miss the occasional burger and fries. I assumed there'd be a few of the other lads feeling the same way. I talked to Sven, who thought it wouldn't do any harm, and then had a word with the England chefs. On the Wednesday night we all trooped down to dinner. The doors of the dining room were shut and there were two giant golden arches stuck up on them. We all went inside and there was a McDonald's takeaway mountain waiting for us: more burgers, cheeseburgers and chips than you've ever seen piled up in one room in your life. It was a complete surprise to all the players. We just devoured everything: it was like watching kids going mad in a candy store. And it worked. We did it again before we played Denmark. Maybe fast food was what was missing from our preparations for facing Brazil. ~ David Beckham

The only real failure in life is the failure to try. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

Sometimes I feel ashamed at my lack of interest in all the new techniques of modern filmmaking, but I prefer to work with as little equipment as possible. If I have a good lens and a steady camera, that's all I need. ~ Sven Nykvist

Language is the soul's ozone layer and we thin it at our peril. ~ Sven Birkerts

Okay, how's this? Margery O'Hare, I solemnly promise never to marry you."
"And?"
"And I won't talk about marrying you. Or sing songs about it. Or even think about marrying you."
"Better."
H glanced around him, then lowered his voice, placing his mouth beside her ear so that she squirmed a little. "But I will stop by and do sinful things to that fine body of yours. If you'll allow me."
"How sinful?" She whispered.
"Oh. Bad. Ungodly."
She slid her hand inside his overalls, feeling the faint sheen of sweat on his warm skin. For a moment it was just the two of them. The sounds and scents of the mine receded, and all she could feel was the thumping of her heart, the pulse of his skin against hers, the ever-present drumbeat of her need for him. "God loves a sinner, Sven." She reached up and kissed him, then delivered a swift bite to his lower lip.
"But not as much as I do. ~ Jojo Moyes

Sometimes, I think having less money can lead to more artistry. ~ Sven Nykvist

Sven must have neglected to pay tribute to one of those strict Nordic gods. But instead of cursing Eriksson himself, Thor has done a still crueller thing and cursed the England strikers. I can only assume that Eriksson was never informed of this curse, otherwise he might have more than a 17-year-old up his sleeve. ~ Simon Barnes

When I was growing up, my idea of a writer was someone like Sven Hassel, that mysterious Danish author who wrote thrillers about men clambering over walls and getting tangled in barbed wire. ~ Andrew O'Hagan

I was swept away by the irresistible desiderium incognitti which breaks down all obstacles and refuses to recognise the impossible ~ Sven Hedin

I read books to read myself. ~ Sven Birkerts

Wait," I said, and they paused mid-stride. "Thank you. Rafe told me you were the best of Dalbreck's soldiers. Now I know that he didn't overestimate your abilities." I turned to Sven. "And I'm sorry I threatened to feed your face to the hogs." Sven smiled. "All in a day's work, Your Highness," he said, and then he bowed. * ~ Mary E. Pearson

Let people make fun of magic all they wanted. He knew it was real.
He'd been raised around magic his whole life.
Not that he'd tell Anna that. Why would he when she was so infuriating? She talked on and on and on, not just to him and Sven- to everyone she met!
She was also impulsive and strong-minded, which was how he'd allowed himself to be talked into taking her to Arendelle in the first place. Feisty-pants thought she could stop an eternal winter even though she had no idea how to find Elsa or what she'd say to make her end the madness. ~ Jen Calonita

The only way I will leave this job will be because of results. I'm too stubborn to quit because of criticism - too stubborn. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

Look at this. A barstool, named Sven? Some old Swedish custom, the winter kicks in, weather gets harsh, after a while you find yourself relating to the furniture in ways you didn't expect? ~ Thomas Pynchon

I read novels to indulge in a concentrated and directed inner activity that parallels -- and thereby tunes up, accentuates -- my own inner life. ~ Sven Birkerts

What reading does, ultimately, is keep alive the dangerous and exhilarating idea that a life is not a sequence of lived moments, but a destiny ... the time of reading, the time defined by the author's language resonating in the self, is not the world's time, but the soul's. The energies that otherwise tend to stream outward through a thousand channels of distraction are marshaled by the cadences of the prose; they are brought into focus by the fact that it is an ulterior, and entirely new, world that the reader has entered. The free-floating self
the self we diffusely commune with while driving or walking or puttering in the kitchen
is enlisted in the work of bringing the narrative to life. In the process, we are able to shake off the habitual burden of insufficient meaning and flex our deeper natures. ~ Sven Birkerts

He has many qualities as a prince, but he is not a surgeon. ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

We need goals when the scoreline is zero zero ~ Sven-Goran Eriksson

Sven!! Having you near her is natural to Eve ... Hell, it's essential! When someone so important just disappears ... you don't just feel hurt ... you feel like dying. ~ Kentaro Yabuki

Sven's actual results on the park were not quite good enough to make him a hero, and not quite bad enough to get him the sack, so he left the gentlemen of the press with something of a void. And they abhor a void. Soon the discovery that Sven was in fact a hammer-man of legendary proportions filled the void, until the media came to realise that Sven was that rare thing, a man whose astonishing success with women somehow didn't make him more interesting. ~ Declan Lynch

Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms. We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse; the term I coin for this is deep reading: the slow and meditative possession of a book. We don't just read the words, we dream our lives in their vicinity. The printed page becomes a kind of wrought-iron fence we crawl through, returning, once we have wandered, to the very place we started. ~ Sven Birkerts

Efficiency is nothing without effectivity. ~ Sven Kohlhaas

The beer aisle would have made Carrie Nation weep. Sven had already warned me that Oregon leads the country in breweries, all of them trying to outdo each other in crafting the hoppiest pale ales, meatiest stouts, darkest porters, fruitiest wheat beers and snootiest lagers. I was hoping to score a case of Budweiser or Miller Genuine Draft, but I was out of luck; apparently I'd be forced to consume craft beer until I finished my assignment and escaped the rain-drenched state. I grabbed a few six packs of something called Beavertail Pale Ale. At least it came in cans. The cereal ~ David Manuel

You and Sven and Sven. You're my family. I like you and you like me and we all helped each other back there. So isn't that family? ~ Elizabeth Rudnick

If literature survives at all, it is as retreat for those who refuse to assimilate to American mass culture. ~ Sven Birkerts

You know Sven? The man who takes care of the gym?' he asked. He waited till he got a nod from Nicholson. 'Well, if Sven dreamed tonight that his dog died, he'd have a very, very bad night's sleep, because he's very fond of that dog. But when he woke up in the morning, everything would be all right. He'd know it was only a dream.'
Nicholson nodded. 'What's the point exactly?'
The point is if his dog really died, it would be exactly the same thing. Only he wouldn't know it. I mean he wouldn't wake up till he died himself. ~ J.D. Salinger

We never know, do we, if the future is just more of the present pushed forward, or whether the look and feel, not to mention the fundamental essence of life might not be changing ~ Sven Birkerts

This is Africa, my friends … These folks do things differently." Sven Taxel, who regards himself as an expert on South Africa because he has read Wilbur Smith, Rian Malan and André Brink, tries to calm his fellow congregation members. ~ Harry Kalmer