Quotes from Roberto Bolano

Los libros son finitos, los encuentros sexuales son finitos, pero el deseo de leer y de follar es infinito, sobrepasa nuestra propia muerte, nuestros miedos, nuestras esperanzas de paz.

They could read him, they could study him, they could pick him apart, but they couldn't laugh or be sad with him....

We all have to die a bit every now and then and usually it's so gradual that we end up more alive than ever. Infinitely old and infinitely alive.

Reading is never a waste of time.

There are books for when you're bored. Plenty of them. There are books for when you're calm. The best kind, in my opinion. There are also books for when you're sad. And there are books for when you're happy. There are books for when you're thirsty for knowledge. And there are books for when you're desperate. The latter are the kind of books Ulises Lima and Belano wanted to write.

For her, reading was directly linked to pleasure, not to knowledge or enigmas or constructions or verbal labyrinths…

Even on the poorest streets people could be heard laughing. Some of these streets were completely dark, like black holes, and the laughter that came from who knows where was the only sign, the only beacon that kept residents and strangers from getting lost.

And then the storm of shit begins.

Drink up, boys, drink up and don't worry, if we finish this bottle we'll go down and buy another one. Of course, it won't be the same as the one we've got now, but it'll still be better than nothing. Ah, what a shame they don't make Los Suicidas mezcal anymore, what a shame that time pases, don't you think? what a shame that we die, and get old, and everything good goes galloping away from us.

In the current socio-political climate, he said to himself, committing suicide is absurd and redundant. Better to become an undercover poet.

When people read his books they have an uncontrollable desire to hang the author in the town square. I can't think of a higher honor for a writer.

Then he went out without touching anything and put his arm around Ingeborg, and like that, with their arms around each other, they returned to the village while the whole past of the universe fell on their heads.

Life left us all where we were meant to be or where it was convenient to leave us and then forgot us, which is as it should be.

When I was done traveling, I returned convinced of one thing: we're nothing.

I realized my happiness was artificial. I felt happy because I saw the others were happy and because I knew I should feel happy, but I wasn't really happy.

My gift to you will be an abyss, she said, but it will be so subtle you'll perceive it only after many years have passed and you are far from Mexico and me. You'll find it when you need it most, and that won't be the happy ending, but it will be an instant of emptiness and joy. And maybe then you'll remember me, if only just a little.

Así que todo nos traiciona, incluida la curiosidad y la honestidad y lo que bien amamos. Sí, dijo la voz, pero consuélate, en el fondo es divertido.

Hay momentos para recitar poesías y hay momentos para boxear.

Leggere è come pensare, come pregare, come parlare con un amico, come esporre le tue idee, come ascoltare le idee degli altri, come ascoltare musica (si, si), come contemplare un paesaggio, come uscire a fare una passeggiata sulla spiaggia.

Supe entonces, con humildad, con perplejidad, en un arranque de mexicanidad absoluta, que estábamos gobernados por el azar y que en esa tormenta todos nos ahogaríamos, y supe que sólo los más astutos, no yo ciertamente, iban a mantenerse a flote un poco más de tiempo.

One should read Borges more.

The world is alive and no living thing has any remedy. That is our fortune.

One has a moral obligation to take responsibility for one's actions, and that includes one's words and silences, yes, one's silences, because silences rise to heaven too, and God hears them, and only God understands and judges them, so one must be very careful with one's silences.

Which is to say, boys, that I saw our struggles and dreams all tangled up in the same failure, and that failure was called joy.