Disgrace

Author

J. M. Coetzee

Published

November 24, 2025

Highlights

Because he has no respect for the material he teaches, he makes no impression on his students.

ONE (Location 106)

David. There is a difference between pleading guilty to a charge and admitting you were wrong, and you know that.’

SIX (Location 842)

to me animal-welfare people are a bit like Christians of a certain kind. Everyone is so cheerful and well-intentioned that after a while you itch to go off and do some raping and pillaging. Or to kick a cat.’

EIGHT (Location 1136)

One can punish a dog, it seems to me, for an offence like chewing a slipper. A dog will accept the justice of that: a beating for a chewing. But desire is another story. No animal will accept the justice of being punished for following its instincts.’

ELEVEN (Location 1374)

Words are beginning to take shape that have been hovering since last night at the edges of memory.

THIRTEEN (Location 1659)

Melanie the firstborn, the dark one, then Desiree, the desired one.

NINETEEN (Location 2493)

You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character, I am a minor character who doesn’t make an appearance until halfway through. Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor. I am not minor. I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions.’

TWENTY-TWO (Location 2992)

Between Lucy’s generation and mine a curtain seems to have fallen. I didn’t even notice when it fell.’

TWENTY-THREE (Location 3177)

here the soul is yanked out of the body; briefly it hangs about in the air, twisting and contorting; then it is sucked away and is gone. It will be beyond him, this room that is not a room but a hole where one leaks out of existence.

TWENTY-FOUR (Location 3304)