57 quotes
Ah how much easier to to bear and understand pain than that promise of spring’s frigid and liquid joy. And with such modesty she was awaiting it: the poignancy of goodness.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (1968)
It is because I dove into the abyss that I am beginning to love the abyss I am made of. (p139)
A paixão segundo G.H (1964)
I have been sculpted into so many statues and haven't frozen in place ("Obsession")
Remembering that day, which she saw again, she thought that from now on this was all she wanted from the God: to rest her chest on him, and not say a word.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (1968)
Really nothing happened on that gray afternoon in April. Everything, however, foretold a big day. (beginning of "Trecho")
...danger is what makes life precious.
Death is the constant danger of life.
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
Freedom isn't enough. What I desire doesn't have a name yet. (p61)
Perto do coração selvagem (1943)
It is not easy to remember how and why I wrote a story or a novel. Once they detach from me, I too find them unfamiliar. It's not a "trance," but the concentration during the writing seems to take away the awareness of whatever isn't writing itself.
I really like things I don't understand: when I read a thing I don't understand I feel a sweet and abysmal vertigo. (p29)
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
I write and that way rid myself of me and then at last I can rest. (p12)
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
I am not a professional writer, because I write only when I want to.
Interview (1977)
I don't have anything to nourish me: I eat myself (p109)
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
Without yet realizing that, for me, form and meaning are one single thing. The phrase arrives already made.
Interview (1977)
Even error was a discovery. Erring would make her find the other face of objects and touch their dusty sides. (6: Sketch of the City)
A cidade sitiada (1949)
There could only be a meeting of their mysteries if one surrendered to the other: the surrender of two unknowable worlds done with the trust with which two understandings might surrender to each other.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (1968)
Things were somehow so good that they were in danger of becoming very bad because what is fully mature is very close to rotting (p17)
A hora da estrela (1977)
Early in the morning it was always the same thing renewed: waking up. Which was languorous, unfurling vast. Vastly she'd open her eyes. (beginining of "Preciosidade")
Laços de família (1960)
I, who manufacture the future like a diligent spider. And the best of me is when I know nothing and manufacture whatever. (p55)
Agua viva (1973)
I don’t want to have the terrible limitation of those who live merely from what can make sense. Not I: I want an invented truth. (p14)
Agua viva (1973)
What’s natural is supernatural, too. Don’t think that it’s very far off. What’s natural is already a mystery.
Interview (1977)