Elfriede Jelinek

My writings are limited to depicting analytically, but also polemically, the horrors of reality. Redemption is the speciality of other authors, male and female.

The government has once again made the right socially acceptable.

I am a sort of justice fanatic, and I always have to give a voice to those who get a raw deal.

I think isolation is one of the greatest problems, an ever-growing obstacle to political solidarity.

It's interesting that the treatment of historical events by art precedes the civilisation of people through democracy.

It doesn't suit me as a person to be put on public display.

I am not made to be pulled into the public as a person. I feel threatened there.

I cannot stand public attention, I just can't. Of course, if I may I might write something instead.

It could draw from a greater reservoir of freedom. The irony could develop an even greater ease.

I'm not one of those women writers who are obsessed by their ego, possibly because I don't have one.

A woman who becomes famous through her work reduces her erotic value. A woman is permitted to chat or babble, but speaking in public with authority is still the greatest transgression.

I have the feeling it will influence my future writing to the extent that without any material worries I could develop a greater ease, even lightheartedness, in my writing.