Quotes from Fernando Sorrentino

Alfonso Reyes said that one published what he had written in order to avoid spending his life correcting it: one publishes a book in order to leave it behind, one publishes a book in order to forget it.

If a cat were to give birth in an oven, would you call what she gave birth to kittens or bread?

I think it is highly likely that – with some differences – everything has already been written. But the fact is that, in literature, the what doesn't matter: what matters is how. Originality in literature does exist, and we can find it – basically and maybe exclusively – in how we write, not what we write about.

I have often received messages from diverse readers that, with some variations, pose similar questions. For example: 'What did you want to symbolize with: a) the man that hits another man on his head with an umbrella? b) the mosquito that dominates the man? c) the fifty chastising lambs?' In all cases my answers, in these words or words like these, are; When I write a story I try to make it the best possible story in a literary sense: I just want to write a story.

Most of the time fame is nothing more than a product of commerce, and has nothing to do with literary quality.

About how much is autobiographical in my fiction, I could say nothing and everything.

In order for the reader to believe the lies I'll tell, first I need to build a normal, everyday, believable environment ... Say, a scenario or, rather, a set design. And then, gradually, we could say surreptitiously, I introduce later the fact or facts that could never happen in real life.

Possibly people seek nonexistent meanings due to the tendency of "intellectuals" wanting to show themselves as "intelligent.

The history of Argentinian literature should be divided into two periods: before Borges (before 1941) and after Borges (after 1941).

My narrators tell their stories as if not fully understood, which in turns helps the reader to arrive at their own conclusion.

There is no question that the style is more important than the subject matter.

The silliest questions are those seeking to be "deep" and/or "intelligent" and that, in fact, are absolutely hollow and stupid. For example: "What do you think is the situation of the Latin American intellectual?" What can I say in response to such generalities? My answer: "I do not know, nor do I care to know.

I believe that a writer should never attempt a contemporary theme or a very precise topography. Otherwise people are immediately going to find mistakes. Or if they don't find them, they're going to look for them, and if they look for them, they'll find them. That's why I prefer to have my stories take place in somewhat indeterminate places and many years ago.

I've always thought it absurd for words to be added to music because I think music is a language, perhaps not a more precise one, but a much more effective language than language, than words.