Yann Martel Quotations

(Note: Adapted from Canadian author Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same title, the American 3-D film Life of Pi (screenplay by David Magee and directed by Ang Lee) was released worldwide as scheduled in December, 2012. The novel (Man Booker prize for Fiction, 2002) and the film (nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Score, for the 70^th Golden Globe Awards, 2013) explored the relationship between the divine and the human in a forceful, elegant, and deeply moving way. For a better understanding of Martel’s work, I gleaned some of his quotations for sharing. ― Ke Ping, January 1, 2013)

[The following passages are from Martel, Yann. (2002). Life of Pi. Toronto: Vintage Canada.]

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity—it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.

(Chapter 1, p. 6)

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

(Chapter 7, p. 31)

Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.

(Chapter 16, pp. 54–55)

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.

(Chapter 56, p. 178)

It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness.

(Chapter 57, p. 179)

My greatest wish—other than salvation—was to have a book. … I cannot think of a better way to spread the faith. No thundering from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little girl’s kiss on your cheek.

(Chapter 73, p. 230)

Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life. … I was weeping because Richard Parker left me so unceremoniously. What a terrible thing it is to botch the farewell. I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things meaningful shape.

(Chapter 94, p. 316)

Don’t you bully me with your politeness! Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?

(Chapter 99, p. 330)

I applied my reason at every moment. Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.

(Chapter 99, pp. 330–331)

I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.

(Chapter 99, p. 336)

[The following passages are from Velinger, Jan. (November, 2003). Interpretations of Reality: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (Interview of Yann Martel at the Prague Writer’s Festival in 2003). Retrieved from Radio Praha website: http://http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/interpretations-of-reality-yann-martels-life-of-pi]

What I was trying to do in this book was try and discuss how we interpret reality ― most secular readers will read the book and say “Ah, okay, there’s one story told and actually something else happened, and Pi ‘invented’ this other story to pass the time, or make his reality bearable.” That’s the secular. The other one, the more religious interpretation, would just be the story you’re reading and that’s what happened ...

Reality isn’t just “out there”, like some block of cement: reality is an interpretation. In a sense we co-create our reality. And we do that all the time, every day. One day we wake up and we’re in a great mood, the city we live in is a beautiful city, the next day it’s an ugly city. That’s just the way we interpret things. We’re not free necessarily to choose the facts of our life, but there is an element of freedom in how we interpret them.

I work really hard on my novels and everything has a meaning. Pi is what’s called an irrational number, so the nickname “Pi” is irrational. I just thought it was intriguing that this irrational number is used to come to a rational understanding of things. And to my mind religion ― and after all Life of Pi is ultimately a religious novel ― to me religion is the same thing. Religion is something slightly irrational, non-reasonable, beyond the reasonable, that helps us make sense of things. The character’s full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. I chose that name for a lot of reasons. As a child I lived in France, I lived in Paris, and I used to go to the Piscine Molitor, it was a pool I was personally attached to, a beautiful, beautiful pool. And a boy who is named after a swimming pool, which is a controlled body of water, ends up a cast-away on the high seas.

[The following passages are from Renton, Jennie. (December, 2012). Yann Martel Interview. Retrieved from Textualities website: http://www.textualities.net/jennie-renton/yann-martel-interview.htm]

Like most people, I am trying to make sense of life. What’s it all about? Why are things the way they are? What’s my role here? Do I have a role? Every writer comes from a certain context. I had an agnostic upbringing in Quebec, in a strongly anti-clerical, anti-religious culture. At university, where I studied philosophy, part of my training was to cut to shreds all the proofs of God. A spiritual perspective was missing in my life, and so I started attending mass at a Catholic church. Later, visits to holy places on my travels to South America, India and the Middle East drew me into reading religious texts and I discovered that while there are common themes in the teachings of the mystics of every tradition, this doesn’t mean they are the same. The great world religions are fundamentally distinct. Christianity and Islam are centred on “I”, which doesn’t imply egocentricism, rather, that individual assent is crucial, it makes redemption possible. Whereas in Hinduism and Buddhism the self is an illusion. Mystical writings in all traditions acknowledge the mystery of life and suggest ways of engaging with that mystery, even though it remains impossible to comprehend intellectually. You can view the world in different ways ― historical, scientific, social, political ― but there are limits to what you can do with a calculator or a hammer. You must make a leap of faith to get the full flavour of life.

“Pi” is something of a mystery in itself in that it represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter ― 3.1415926… etc ― but it seems impossible to take it through to the last number after the point.

Like “pi”, life is not finite. And so I didn’t make the title The Life of Pi: I deliberately left out the definite article. That would have denoted a single life. This book is not escapist fiction. It’s to do with discovering life through a religious perspective. Religion doesn’t deny reality, it explains it. Secular critics ask, “How can you believe?” This question doesn’t faze people with faith. Rationality is only part of the picture. Science and religion don’t have to collide ― I see them as complementary, rather than contradictory. Science can be a gateway to the greater mystery.

The subtext of Life of Pi can be summarised in three lines:

1) Life is a story.

2) You can choose your story.

3) A story with God is the better story.