"The Tin Drum" Quotes

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

I am not a historian, and that’s not the point. The point is that I remember.

Life, that's a different thing. Life is over there, behind the shelf, in the shit, and I'm out here, in front of the shelf.

What happens to a man that he plays such a role? He becomes a shadow of himself. He lives in a constant state of war. He is just a shadow.

Anyone who has not lived in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy does not know how beautiful silence can be.

A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.

I must have been a monster, but I didn't know it. I didn't know that I was a monster.

I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know how to get it.

I have no bones, I have no nerves, and I have no back, but I have a voice.

I look at my own face, but I don't recognize it, and that's when I realize that I am growing old.