Quotes from Clarice Lispector

since she wasn't a sad person, she tried to go on as if she hadn't lost anything.

The steel suddenly touched her heart. Ah, jealousy, it was jealousy, the cold hand mashing her slowly, squeezing her, diminishing her soul.

Words are sounds transfused with unequal shadows that intersect, stalactites, lace, transfigured organ music. I hardly dare shout out words at this vibrant and rich, morbid and dark web which has its countertone in the thick bass of pain. Allegro con brio. I'll try to wrest gold from charcoal.

Há um livro em cada um de nós", dizem. E talvez daí eu tenha querido expulsar de mim um livro que eu escreveria se para isso talento eu tivesse, e mais a perseverança.

Life has no adjective. It's a mixture in a strange crucible but that allows me on the end, to breathe. And sometimes to pant. And sometimes to gasp. Yes. But sometimes there is also the deep breath that finds the cold delicateness of my spirit, bound to my body for now.

Because the best phrase and always still the youngest, was: goodness makes me want to be sick. Goodness was lukewarm and light. It smelled of raw meat kept for too long. Without entirely rotting in spite of everything. It was freshened up from time to time, seasoned a little, enough to keep it a piece of lukewarm, quiet meat.

Hoje me exige hoje mesmo.

I can feel myself holding a child, thought Joanna. Sleep, my child, sleep, I tell you. The child is warm and I am sad.

Juro que este libro está construido sin palabras. Es una fotografía muda. Este libro es un silencio. Este libro es una pregunta.

no va a ser una vida fácil. Pero es una vida nueva

Mas tenho medo do que é novo e tenho medo de viver o que não entendo, quero sempre ter a garantia de pelo menos estar pensando que entendo, não sei me entregar à desorientação.

When she was a little girl, her aunt, in order to frighten her, insisted that the vampire – the one that sucks human blood by biting its victims in the flesh of the neck – casts no reflection in the mirror. She reckoned that it might not be such a bad thing being a vampire, for the blood would add a touch of pink to her sallow complexion. For she gave the impression of having no blood unless a day might come when she would have to spill it.

Long live the dead because we live in them.

Como posso amar a grandeza do mundo se não posso amar o tamanho da minha natureza?

Estamos intentando la alegría! ¿Sientes al menos eso? ¿Y sientes cómo nos arriesgamos en el peligro? ¿Sientes que hay más seguridad en el dolor tibio?

se eu gritasse acordaria milhares de seres gritantes que iniciariam pelos telhados um coro de gritos e horror. Se eu gritasse desencadearia a existência - a existência de quê? a existência do mundo. Com reverência eu temia a existência do mundo para mim.

Who was she asking? God? She didn't think about God, God didn't think about her. God belongs to those who can manage to get hem.

One thing I do know: love, however violent, is pure. And that is how I have come to discover that I am not pure.

Como se explica que o meu maior medo seja exatamente o de ir vivendo o que for sendo?

Ela acreditava em anjo e, porque acreditava, eles existiam" (A Hora da Estrela)

Life, my love, is a great seduction in which all that exists seduces. That room that was deserted and for that reason primally alive. I had reached the nothing, and the nothing was living and moist.

I shall do everything possible to see that she doesn't die. But I feel such an urge to put her to sleep then go off to sleep myself.

Being born is like this: The sunflowers slowly turn their corollas toward the sun. The wheat is ripe. The bread is eaten with sweetness. My impulse connects to that of the roots of the trees

Milagros, no. Pero las coincidencias. Vivía de las coincidencias, vivía de líneas que incidían y se cruzaban y, en el cruce, formaban un leve e instantáneo punto, tan leve e instantáneo que era más bien un secreto. Apenas hablase de las coincidencias, no estaría hablando de nada.