41 quotes
People are complex and complicated—they seldom show all the aspects of their personalities. Characters should be that way too.
Memory is fiction. We select the brightest and the darkest, ignoring what we are ashamed of, and so embroider the broad tapestry of our lives. (p433)
Portrait in Sepia (2000)
I do realize that human beings are the same everywhere; the differences are not so great. This story of the Trueba family could have happened anywhere.
Imagine 1 (1984)
“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity; they need justice” (p162)
The House of the Spirits (1982)
Thank God – because what are you going to write about if you don’t struggle as a child? I don’t think that you become creative because you have struggled, no, but creative people are fuelled by anger and passion, and haunted by demons and memories.
The man and the little girl looked at each other, recognizing themselves in the other’s eyes. (p319)
The House of the Spirits (1982)
I can only write fiction in Spanish, because it is for me a very organic process that I can only do in my native language.
The Poet’s funeral had turned into the symbolic burial of freedom. (p441)
The House of the Spirits (1982)
The death of a child is the oldest sorrow of women. Mothers have lost children for millennia. It is only a privileged few who can expect all of their children to live.
According 2025
ឃ to Nadia, who had an astounding gift for languages, words are not that important when you recognize intentions. (p2025)
Inés of My Soul (2006)
To me a short story is like an arrow; it has to have the right direction from the beginning and you have to know exactly where you're aiming.
When I write, I fly to another dimension. Like Eva Luna, I try to live life as I would like it to be, as in a novel. I am always half flying, like Marc Chagall's violinists.
In Interviews with Latin American Writers (1989)
Short stories come to you whole. A novel is work—work, work, work—and then one day it’s over; it’s finished. But a short story is something that happens to you—it’s like catching the flu.
I do believe in destiny. I believe that we are dealt a hand of cards and we have to play the game of life as best we can. And often the cards are marked.
"There are a lot of good people, Irina, but they keep quiet about it. It’s the bad ones who make a lot of noise, and that’s why they get noticed..." (p103)
The Japanese Lover (2015)
When Irina Bazili began working at Lark House in 2010, she was twenty-three years old but already had few illusions about life. (first line)
The Japanese Lover (2015)
"Tell me a story," I say to you.
"What about?"
"Tell me a story you have never told anyone before. Make it up for me." (last lines of Prologue)
The Stories of Eva Luna (1989)
She sowed in my mind the idea that reality is not only what we see on the surface; it has a magical dimension as well and, if we so desire, it is legitimate to enhance it and color it to make our journey through life less trying. (p22)
Eva Luna (1987)
Happy endings usually don't work for me. I like open endings. I trust the reader’s imagination.
We see stuff on TV that doesn’t look real. It looks like a video game. We don’t see the collateral damage.
with Democracy Now (2006)