Quotes from Clarice Lispector

O que não sei dizer é mais importante do que o que digo. [...] Cada vez mais escrevo com menos palavras. Meu livro melhor acontecerá quando eu de todo não escrever. Eu tenho uma falta de assunto fundamental.

Life just is for me, and I don't understand what I'm saying. And so I adore it. ——————

from any struggle or rest I will rise up as strong and beautiful as a young horse.

Quiero escribirte como quien aprende. Fotografío cada instante. Profundizo en las palabras como si pintase, más que un objeto, su sombra. No quiero preguntar por qué se puede preguntar siempre por qué y seguir siempre sin respuesta: ¿consigo entregarme al expectante silencio que sigue a una pregunta sin respuesta? Aunque adivino que en algún lugar o en algún tiempo existe la gran respuesta para mí.

Yo que detesto el domingo porque está hueco Yo, que quiero la cosa más primordial porque es la fuente de la generación -yo que ambiciono beber agua en el manantial de la fuente-, yo que soy todo eso, debo por falta y trágico destino conocer tan sólo y experimentar tan sólo los ecos de mí, porque no capto el mí propiamente dicho.

No quiero tener la terrible limitación de quien vive sólo de lo que puede tener un sentido. Yo no: lo que quiero es una verdad inventada.

She was sitting there in her little housedress. He knew she'd done what she could to avoid becoming luminous and unattainable. Timidly and with respect, he was looking at her. He'd grown older, weary, curious. But he didn't have a single word to say. From the open doorway he saw his wife on the sofa without leaning back, once again alert and tranquil, as if on a train. That had already departed.

Pero esos días de fuerte y condenado verano me insuflan la necesidad de la renuncia. Renuncio a tener un significado, y entonces un dulce y doloroso quebranto se apodera de mí.

In my interior I find the silence I seek.

I shall never be able to understand it, but there must be someone who can. And I shall have to create that someone who can inside myself.

Sou o resultado de ter ouvido uma voz quente no passado e de ter descido do trem quase antes dele parar — a pressa é inimiga da perfeição e foi assim que corri para a cidade perdendo logo a estação e a nova partida do trem e seu momento privilegiado que desperta espanto tão dolorido que é o apito do trem, que é adeus.

E - não esquecer que a estrutura do átomo não é vista mas sabe-se dela. Sei de muita coisa que não vi. E vós também. Não se pode dar uma prova da existência do que é mais verdadeiro, o jeito é acreditar. Acreditar chorando.

When I prayed I achieved an emptiness of soul — and that emptiness is all I can ever have.

What I meant was that despite everything she belonged to a stubborn race of dwarves that one day might reclaim the right to scream.

I am going to create what happened to me. Only because living isn't tellable. Living isn't livable. I shall have to create upon life. And without lying. Yes to creation, no to lying. Creation isn't imagination, it's running the huge risk of coming face to face with reality.

Life is like that: you press a button and life lights up. Except that the girl didnt know which button to press.

Si esta historia no existe, pasará a existir. Pensar es un acto. Sentir es un hecho.

And even so, I had discovered, I was afraid to free myself. "That" had grown too much inside me, leaving me full. I'd be helpless if I were ever cured. After all, what was I now, I felt, but a reflection? Were I to eradicate Daniel, I'd be a blank mirror.

Nací dura, heroica, solitaria y de pie. Y he encontrado mi contrapunto en el paisaje sin elementos pintorescos y sin belleza. La fealdad es mi estandarte de guerra. Yo amo lo feo con un amor de igual a igual. Y desafío a la muerte. Yo, yo soy mi propia muerte.

As coisas estavam de algum modo tão boas que podiam se tornar muito ruins porque o que amadurece plenamente pode apodrecer.

As if ripping from the depths of the earth the knotted roots of a rare tree, that's how I write to you, and those roots as if they were powerful tentacles like voluminous naked bodies of strong women entwined by serpents and by carnal desires for fulfillment, and all this is the prayer of a black mass, and a creeping plea for amen: because the bad is unprotected and needs the approval of God: that is creation.

Denuncio nossa fraqueza, denuncio o horror alucinante de morrer - e respondo a toda essa infâmia com - exatamente isto que vai agora ficar escrito - e respondo a toda essa infâmia com alegria. Puríssima e levíssima alegria. A minha única salvação é a alegria.

An eye looked over my life. I probably called that eye sometimes "truth", sometimes morality, sometimes human law, sometimes "God", sometimes "myself". For the most part I lived inside a mirror. Two minutes after I was born I had already lost my beginnings.

All the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born.