Literary Birthday – 23 April – Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness was born on 23 April 1902 and died on 8 February 1998.

Halldór Laxness Quotes

1. The difference between a novelist and a historian is this: that the former tells lies deliberately and for the fun of it; the historian tells lies in his simplicity and imagines he is telling the truth.
2. The first thing is to have the will; the rest is technique.
3. For man is essentially alone, and one should pity him and love him and grieve with him.
4. My motto is strong packaging, clear addressing.
5. It’s a pity we don’t whistle at one another, like birds. Words are misleading.
6. Remember, any lie you are told, even deliberately, is often a more significant fact than a truth told in all sincerity.
7. What you have stolen can never be yours.
8. People don’t have the imagination to understand politicians. People are too innocent.
9. Whoever doesn’t live in poetry cannot survive here on earth.

Halldór Laxness was an Icelandic writer who wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels. He received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of  Independent People and The Fish Can Sing. He used slipstream fiction techniques in some of his writing, including the novel, Independent People. Later works by Laxness were influenced by the traditional Icelandic saga. In the 1970s and ’80s he published several volumes of memoirs, including Sagan af brauddinu dýra (The Bread of Life) and Dagar hjá múnkum (Days with Monks).

Source for Image: Nobel Foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halld%C3%B3r_Kiljan_Laxness_1955.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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