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In August 1918, the new museum in Leipzig proudly opened its first exhibition. It was also its last. The topic of the exhibition was the economic blockade imposed by the enemy on Germany and Austria. And indeed, the blockade took its toll. The empires of Germany and Austria collapsed, and the museum was shut down.

— Exact thinking in demented times by Karl Sigmund (Page 85)

It proved too hard, however, for Olga, with her inability to see, to raise Otto’s little son, and so the boy was sent to a children’s home and grew up mostly there. During the first ten years of his life, he hardly set eyes on his hyperactive father.

— Exact thinking in demented times by Karl Sigmund (Page 84)

Maybe scientists, knowing when to stop, were wiser than philosophers: “Science has progressed almost more through deciding what to ignore than through deciding what to study.”

— Exact thinking in demented times by Karl Sigmund (Page 38)

If I were a Jim Jarmusch, I would convey the waiter’s tale through a series of short episodes forming a movie called Coffee and Cigars. But alas, I’m not an artist—just an elderly, stooping professor who grew up in the shadow of the Circle. And so I’ll simply tell you its story from the beginning, as best I can.

— Exact thinking in demented times by Karl Sigmund (Page 8)

“Yes. It was like that. Poor pitiful Mama. You know, I’m like her now. I get mad at everyone because they are working, living. Sometimes I hate you because you’re not dying. Isn’t that awful?” “No, because you can tell me this. And I can tell you I’m glad it’s not me that is dying. But Mama never had a soul to tell anything to....

— A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin (Page 309)