{"author":"Yann Martel","author_id":"Yann+Martel","total_quotes":132,"quotes":[{"text":"What is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities - the getting of food, clothing and shelter? Why can't reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer? Why such a vast net of there's so little fish to catch?","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["faith","logic","reason"],"id":7828,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["faith","inner-peace","search-for-truth"],"id":12056,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting—that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art—and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to. Then complete strangers told him that his book had filled a hole in them, had answered a question, had brought colour to their lives. The comfort of strangers, be it a smile, a pat on the shoulder or a word of praise, is truly a comfort.","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["art","book","creativity","curiosity","inspirational","joy","life","painting","strangers","writer","writers-on-writing","writing","writing-life"],"id":21265,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"Doesn't the telling of something always become a story?","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["stories","storytelling"],"id":30725,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiba: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes. The story with animals is the better story.' Pi Patel: 'Thank you. And so it goes with God.","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["controversy","dialogue","faith","god","ideas","life-of-pi","religion","story"],"id":30750,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?Doesn't that make life a story?","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["stories","thinking","world"],"id":33989,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"I wish I could convey the perfection of a seal slipping into water or a spider monkey swinging from point to point or a lion merely turning its head. But language founders in such seas. Better to picture it in your head if you want to feel it...I spent more hours than I can count a quiet witness to the highly mannered, manifold expressions of life that grace our planet. It is something so bright, loud, weird and delicate as to stupefy the senses.","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["animals"],"id":39984,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["fear","fearless","fearlessness","life"],"id":44092,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"Afterwards, when it's all over, you meet God. What do you say to God?","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["death","god","human-suffering"],"id":44385,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"},{"text":"All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.","author":"Yann Martel","tags":["adaptability","madness","survival"],"id":45356,"author_id":"Yann+Martel"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":132,"pages":14,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}