# Quote — J. M. Coetzee, Foe

> “You are father-born. You have no mother. The pain you feel is the pain of lack, not the pain of loss. What you hope to regain in my person you have in truth never had.”

- Author: [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md)
- Book: [Foe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Foe_(1986)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/you-are-father-born

## More from this book

> But this is not a place of words. Each syllable, as it comes out, is caught and filled with water and diffused. This is a place where bodies have their own signs. It is the home of Friday.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/but-this-is-not.md)

> Nothing I have forgotten is worth the remembering.

p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/nothing-i-have.md)

> Return to me the substance I have lost, Mr. Foe. That is my entreaty.

p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/return-to-me-the.md)