Berlin Alexanderplatz

There were people flocking to him from all directions. He held the key to every heart.

Blood must flow, blood must flow, blood must flow in torrents thick and fast.19 “I couldn’t care less. The whole world will fall to bits if you wait long enough, and you along with it. I shan’t dance to that tune again.

I knock everything to pieces you knock everything to pieces, he knocks everything to pieces.

A bee, a wasp, a bumblebee, is flying round on the ceiling above, next to the stovepipe, a perfect miracle of nature in winter. All others of its race, breed, convictions and species are dead, dead already or not yet born; this is the ice age and the lonely bumblebee must survive, it does not know how it came about and why it had to be him.

A clear starry sky looked down upon the dark abodes of humanity. Kerkau castle lay in the deep stillness of night. And yet a woman with fair curly hair buried her head in the pillows and could find no sleep. Tomorrow, ah tomorrow, one she loves, her sweetheart, was to forsake her. A whisper passed (ran) through the gloomy, impenetrable (dark) night

“You can talk like that for another hundred years. I can only laugh at it.” “Do not laugh. Do not laugh.” “Because you do not know me. Because you do not know who I am. Who Franz Biberkopf is. He’s not afraid of anything. I’ve got fists. Just look here at these muscles of mine.”

In the war zone sweet, slovenly, unwashed little Lina with her tear-stained face, advanced alone, Prince of Homburg style:10 My noble uncle Frederick of Mark Brandenburg! Natalie! Hold, hold! O God of Heaven and Earth, now he is quite undone, no matter, no matter! She shot off, making a bee-line for the stand of the white-haired man. Franz, long-su

What filthy rotten luck, it’s a flamin’ disaster, I feel like smashin’ the whole world to pulp.

“Just speak. How sweetly the birds can sing when they have escaped the weasel. Yet there are many weasels and still the little bird shall sing! You still do not turn your eyes to me. You still do not need to behold me. You hear the babble of men, the clamour of the street, the roar of the tramway. But only breathe, listen. Amidst it all you shall h