57 quotes
Humility in living isn’t my strong point. But when I write I’m fated to be humble. Though within limits. Because the day I lose my own importance inside me — all will be lost.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (1968)
As for Martim, he had time. In fact, he seemed to have discovered time. (Chapter 10)
A Maçã no escuro (1961)
I was what I still am, a daring shy person. I’m shy, but I throw myself into things.
Interview (1977)
I'm not a dreamer. I only daydream to attain reality. (p43)
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
To the point at which, that afternoon up on the hill, Martim began to judge himself. The unpleasant time for explanations had arrived. (Chapter 2)
A Maçã no escuro (1961)
What an effort I make to be myself. I struggle against a tide in a boat with just enough room for my two feet in a perilous and fragile balance. (p27)
Um Sopro de Vida (1978)
The two murmured more than talked: they had just started dating and were giddy, it was love. Love and what comes with it: jealousy. (beginning of "O primeiro beijo" )
Felicidade clandestina (1971)
I wasn't actually distracted, my guard was just down, I was being something quite rare: free. (from "Perdoando Deus")
Felicidade clandestina (1971)
Twelve years weigh on a person like pounds of lead. The days melt into one another, merge to form one whole block, a big anchor. And the person is lost. ("A fuga")
we were only made for the little silence, not for the silence of the stars.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures (1968)
It was one of those mornings that seem to hang in the air. And that are most akin to the idea we have of time. (beginining of "Começos de uma Fortuna")
Laços de família (1960)
That was how that man was growing, the way a rolling thing takes on volume. He was growing calmly, emptily, indirectly, patiently advancing. (chapter 10)
A Maçã no escuro (1961)
Sitting there in his plot he was enjoying his own vast emptiness. That way of not understanding was the primeval mystery and he was an inextricable part of it. (chapter 6)
A Maçã no escuro (1961)
I was looking for a way to pour some of myself out, before I completely overflowed (from "Another Couple of Drinks")
If the twinkling of the stars pains me, if this distant communication is possible, it is because something almost like a star quivers within me. (p59)
Perto do coração selvagem (1943)
(You never felt a violent impact from a book?) CL: A bit, sometimes. I felt it with “Crime and Punishment,” by Dostoyevsky, which gave me a real fever. “Steppenwolf” turned me upside down.
Interview (1977)
It's not apparent to me that all these intimate movements of the book, as well as others that complement them-were drowned by what you call the "spell of the phrase." Ever since my first book, moreover, there's been talk about my "phrases." Do not doubt, however, that I wanted - and reached, by God - some thing through them, and not the phrases themselves.