J. M. Coetzee Quotes

He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle for the last time, out into the grounds and into the forest?

I don't mean to imply that I'm afraid of Death. I'm just not ready to go out on a date with him.

The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.

I don't know what's waiting for us when we die--something better, something worse. I only know I'm not ready to find out yet.

Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?

Most people are not ready for death, theirs or anybody elses.

Don't get all sentimental on me, Makes me think I'm gonna die.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says that death is the graduation ceremony, while living is just a long course in learning and preparing for the next journey. If we acknowledge death as the beginning, then how can we fear it?

I think about death most of the day, every day. We can't escape death, and choosing to ignore it only makes it more scary.

There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

I'm terrified I'm about to die, or that all the people I love are about to die, every second of every day.

I don't want to hear about my death.

I've always been terrified of dying, always. It was a concern of mine long before it had to be.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

Dying before dying has two important consequences: It liberates the individual from the fear of death and influences the actual experience of dying at the time of biological demise.

Mortality applies to every aspect of life. The fear of death is the driving fear of life.

Just because you've faced your own mortality, it doesn't make it any less frightening.

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.

There's nothing like impending death to rouse you from existential boredom.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

I think old people are scary. They remind you of your own death. People don't like to tell you that.

I don't like being 50 and I don't like thinking about death.

I know that I am going to die, and I'm ready to do so.

I think about death every day - what it would be like, why it would happen to me. It would be humiliating to be afraid.

He who doesn't fear death dies only once.