Quotes from Clarice Lispector

Pela primeira vez na vida eu teria o que sempre quisera: ia ser outra que não eu mesma.

Somos livres, e este é o inferno.

Meanwhile the clouds are white and the sky is all blue. Why so much God. Why not a little for men.

Baim? nemyl?ti dar blogiau už baim? b?ti nemylimam.

la esperanza no existe, porque ella no es ya un futuro aplazado, es hoy.

I always give names to things

What you will know of me is the shadow of the arrow that has hit its target. I shall only vainly grasp a shadow that takes up no room in space, and what barely matters is the dart. I construct something free of me and of you—this my freedom that leads to death.

La actitud debe ser: no se pierde por esperar, no se pierde por no entender.

Y el amor, en vez de darse, se exige. Y quienes nos quieren desean que seamos eso que ellos necesitan.

Quiero ser anónima e íntima. Quiero hablar sin hablar, de ser posible.

And even though I'd gone into the room, I seemed to have gone into nothing. Even once inside it, I was still somehow outside. As if the room weren't deep enough to hold me and I had to leave pieces of myself in the hallway, in the worst rejection to which I'd ever fallen victim: I didn't fit.

Hay un gran silencio dentro de mí. Y ese silencio ha sido la fuente de mis palabras. Y del silencio ha llegado lo que es más precioso que todo: el propio silencio.

E ninguém é eu. E ninguém é você. Esta é a solidão.

Amo a quien tiene paciencia para esperar por mí y por mi voz.

Como, pois, inaugurar agora em mim o pensamento? E talvez só o pensamento me salvasse, tenho medo da paixão.

In the garden of Paradise, who was the monster and who was not? between the houses and apartments, and in the elevated spaces between the high buildings, in that hanging garden - who is, and who is not? how long can I stand not at least knowing what is looking at me? the raw roach is looking at me and its law sees mine

Pido humildemente permiso para existir, imploro humildemente una alegría, una acción de gracias, pido que me permitan vivir con menos sufrimiento, pido para no ser tan puesta a prueba por las experiencias ásperas, pido a hombres y mujeres que me consideren un ser humano digno de algún amor y algún respeto. Pido la bendición de la vida.

Me quedo perpleja como una criatura al ver que incluso en el amor hay que tener sentido común y noción de la medida.

I struggle to conquer more deeply my freedom of sensations and thoughts without any utilitarian meaning: I am alone, I and my freedom.

Tienes la costumbre de querer saber por qué -el por qué no me interesa, la causa es la materia del pasado.

Animal life boils down to this pursuit of pleasure after all. Human life is more complex: it boils down to the pursuit of pleasure, to fear of it, and above all to the dissatisfaction of the time in between.

Naranja en la mesa. Bendito el árbol que te parió.

La oración profunda no es aquella que pide, la oración más profunda es la que ya no pide.

Well, she sighed, even if it wasn't reaching me clearly, at least she knew that there was a secret meaning to the things of life. So it was she knew that she occasionally, even if somewhat confusedly, ended up sensing perfection—