109 quotes
[...], indeed nothing so tires a person as having to struggle, not with himself, but with an abstraction.
All the Names (1997)
a waiting, stagnant darkness, thick and silent as the ocean deeps
All the Names (1997)
Every novel is like this, desperation, a frustrated attempt to save something of the past. Except that it still has not been established whether it is the novel that prevents man from forgetting himself or the impossibility of forgetfulness that makes him write novels.
The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1989)
The day before is what we bring to the day we're actually living through, life is a matter of carrying along all those days-before just as someone might carry stones, and when we can no longer cope with the load, the work is done.
The Cave (2000)
How are you, doctor, that is what we say when we do not wish to play the weakling, we say Fine, even though we may be dying, and this is commonly known as taking one's courage in both hands, a phenomenon that has only been observed in the human species.
Blindness (1995)
[...], perhaps that's how you learn, by answering questions.
All the Names (1997)
He felt very tired, not from the mental effort, but because he had suddenly seen what the world was like, how there are many lies and truths
The Cave (2000)
You know the name you were given,
You do not know the name you have
All the Names (1997)
Deep down, the problem is not a God that does not exist, but the religion that proclaims Him. I denounce religions, all religions, as harmful to Humankind. These are harsh words, but one must say them.
There are those who deny me the right to speak of God, because I am not a believer. And I say that I have every right in the world. I want to talk about God because it is a problem that affects all humanity.
Then Jesus slowly turned to look at her and said, I have never been with a woman. Mary held his hands, This is how everyone has to begin, men who have never known a woman, women who have never known a man, until the day comes for the one who knows to teach the one who does not.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991)
He spent the whole time sitting on a log in the woodshed, sometimes starting straight ahead with the fixity of a blind man who knows that even if he turns his head in the other direction he will still not see anything
The Cave (2000)
[...] the skin is only what we want others to see of us, underneath it not even we know who we are, [...]
All the Names (1997)
… because contrary to what people say, two weaknesses don't make for a still greater weakness, but for renewed strength ...
The Cave (2000)
...I'm not able to fear death... We will all turn skeletons and everything shall end. The skeleton becomes, therefore, the most radical form of nudity.
[T]here are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.
The Double (2002)
Besides the conversation of women, it is dreams that keep the world in orbit. But dreams also form a diadem of moons, therefore the sky is that splendour inside a man's head, if his head is not, in fact, his own unique sky.
Baltasar and Blimunda (1982)
Let's be guided by norms based on consensus and authority obvious as it is that any variation in the authority varies the consensus, You give no leeway, Because there can be no leeway, we live cooped up in a room and paint the world and the universe on its walls.
The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1989)
Without pausing, [abraham] took up his knife in order to sacrifice the poor boy and was just about to slit his throat when he felt a hand grip his arm and heard a voice in his ear shouting, What are you doing, you wretch, killing your own son...
Sometimes I say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. If I can produce a great chair, even better. But above all I have to make sure that it has four stable feet.