Quotes from Ariel Dorfman

Mining created Chile. The story of men who go down into the mountain and chip away at minerals in the darkness and then suffer an accident that leaves them at the mercy of that darkness is part of the DNA of Chile, an integral part of the country's history.

Those who have never suffered the iniquities of exile cannot possibly understand the significance, the gravitas, of a mattress.

Most writers who leave their country physically have already left it mentally and emotionally.

Responsibility without power, the fate of the secretary through the ages.

I don't believe in God, but I believe in angels.

We can live with lots of things, but we can't live without imagination, we can't live without hope.

You can survive with anger, but you can't live with it forever.

There's a tendency, especially among revolutionaries, to only show the good side of yourself and then when you come to power, the bad side comes out.

We can live with lots of things, but we can't live without imagination, we can't live without hope.

You can survive with anger, but you can't live with it forever.

Gerardo; People can die from an excessive dose of the truth, you know.

Beware of turning into the enemy you most fear. All it takes is to lash out violently at someone who has done you some grievous harm, proclaiming that only your pain matters in this world. More than against that person's body, you will then, at that moment, be committing a crime against your own imagination.

She was not willing to let others narrate her life and her death. While there is one person like her in this world, I will find myself defending both her right to struggle and our obligation to remember.

El desierto] que parece recordar de todo lo que le ha pasado, que recuerda y que termina por destruir todo lo que le pasa.

That's all it takes, one person crying out in the ethical wilderness, one person and then one more and then another, that's all that's needed to keep the spark of justice alive

I'm really not sure if others fail to perceive me or if, one fraction of a second after my face interferes with their horizon, a millionth of second after they have cast their gaze on me, they already begin to wash me from their memory: forgotten before arriving at the scant, sad archangel of a remembrance.

the urgent task we need to undertake if we want a different sort of country is the task of extracting Pinochet from our minds, turning him into a terrible memory that will not return

A wave of embarrassment washed over him, and he checked to see if any of his posters had noticed. They stayed put, emotionless and impartial.

Es terrible perder una guerra. -Casi tan terrible como ganarla.

Fue terrible descubrir que alguien que te odía sonreír un día y al otro día negarte. Me acuerdo de uno de mis amigos gritándome, mientras me golpeaban: "¡Por cobarde! ¡Por maricón!".

Fue terrible descubrir que alguien te podía sonreír un día y al otro día negarte. Me acuerdo de uno de mis amigos gritándome, mientras me golpeaban: "¡Por cobarde! ¡Por maricón!".

Ésa es una de las cosas que no podemos decidir: cómo van a llamarnos los demás. Solamente sabemos cómo vamos a llamarnos a nosotros mismos.

Los mejores momentos de la vida son aquellos en los cuales no sabemos qué hacer, porque solamente entonces, mi niño, descubrimos nuestra fuerza interior, nuestra verdadera vocación.

Son todos vulnerables. Pero tú más que nadie, mi niño, porque te pasarás la vida absorbiendo el dolor de los demás.