How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph), with the exception of Part V, which runs (Part#. "Short Title". Paragraph). Part V has no numbered chapters—only title headings.
Quote #4
But are tanks really more important than pears? As time went by, Karel realized that the answer to this question was not as obvious as he had always thought, and he began to feel a secret sympathy for Mama's perspective, which had a big pear tree in the foreground and somewhere in the distance a tank no bigger than a ladybug, ready at any moment to fly away out of sight. (II.2.5)
As Karel mellows with age and forgets how much he couldn't stand his mother, he begins to think that her annoying ways were really not so bad. One instance in particular—her anger at a neighbor for not picking her pears while the Russians invaded—used to drive him bonkers. But now he begins to see her point of view on the subject. It's not that the Russian tanks weren't important to her; it's just that the rotting pears were more pressing.
Quote #5
Dominion over the world, as we know, is divided between angels and devils. The good of the world, however, implies not that the angels have the advantage over the devils (as I believed when I was a child) but that the powers of the two sides are nearly in equilibrium. (III.4.3)
Kundera tries to explain why laughter is such a complicated thing. To do so, he has to move into another realm. First, we have to understand that angels aren't the sweet, fluffy, white creatures that pop culture believes them to be; they're powerful and terrifying. And devils? Well, the world needs them to keep the angels in check. This is definitely not the world of your average Sunday school class.
Quote #6
This book is a novel in the form of variations. The various parts follow each other like the various stages of a voyage leading into the interior of a theme, the interior of a thought, the interior of a single, unique situation, the understanding of which recedes from my sight into the distance. (VI.8.1)
Kundera gives us some explanation about his book, which is very nice of him, really. He's talking first about his father's work on Beethoven's variations, and he reveals to us that he's nicked that form for his work. In other words, we can think of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as a series of variations on a theme. Kundera's use of this form goes a long way to helping us understand why his novel reads more like a collection of short stories: he's interested in exploring a set of themes rather than a unified plot. Most importantly, it's a journey inward, into the infinitude of inner life. Trippy.