Michael Ende (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, November 12, 1929 – Filderstadt-Bonlanden, August 28, 1995)
German writer. He was the only son of Edgar Ende, a surrealist painter who was later banned from painting by the Nazis. At the age of six, he moved to Munich, where he attended grammar school. Towards the end of World War II, he went into hiding to avoid conscription. After the war, he completed his education and went on to study at the performing arts academy. Through jobs as an actor and radio presenter, Michael Ende eventually became an author. He wrote prose, plays, songs, film scripts, and critiques. Some of Ende’s works bear the stamp of his anthroposophical worldview, such as *The Magic Potion* and *Momo and the Time Savers*.
He began writing children’s books at the instigation of a friend, who asked him to write the text for a book that the friend was illustrating. This is how Michael Ende’s first children’s book came into being: Jim Button and Lucas the Engineer (1960).
What do the characters in a book do when no one is reading it?
“What do the characters in a book do when nobody is reading it?” — This is a philosophical question that is never answered, and that is precisely its power. Ende plays with the idea that fictional characters have a life of their own, even when the book is closed. It touches on the autonomy of literary figures, the reader’s role in bringing a story to life, and the boundary between imagination and reality — all hallmark themes in Ende’s writing.
Origin:
The quote comes from Zettelkasten (literally “box of notes”), a posthumous collection of loose notes, story fragments, poems and novel ideas that Ende compiled himself. It is not a novel, but a window into his literary workshop.
Author:
Michael Ende (1929–1995), German author, best known for Momo (1973) and The Neverending Story (1979).
