# Quote — J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

> But more often in the very act of caressing her I am overcome with sleep as if polelaxed, fall into oblivion sprawled upon her body, and wake an hour or two later dizzy, confused, thirsty. These dreamless spells are like death to me, or enchantment, black, outside time.

- Author: [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md)
- Book: [Waiting for the Barbarians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Waiting_for_the_Barbarians_(1980)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/but-more-often

## More from this book

> How can I accept that disaster has overtaken my life when the world continues to move so tranquilly through its cycles?

p. 102 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/how-can-i-accept.md)

> Truly, man was not made to live alone!

p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/truly-man-was.md)

> It is the knowledge of how contingent my unease is, how dependent on a baby that wails beneath my window one day and does not wail the next, that brings the worst shame to me, the greatest indifference to annihilation.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/it-is-the.md)