Quotes from Javier Marías

Cuando uno es repudiado por el principal objeto de su amor, es fácil que se le instale la sensación general de estar de sobra;

donde Cristo perdió el mechero

Anlam aramaktan ya da bir anlam olduÄŸunu zannetmekten daha kötü bir ÅŸey yoktur. Vard?r asl?nda, daha da beteri vard?r: bir ÅŸeyin, önemsiz bur ayr?nt?n?n bile olsa anlam?n?n bize, eylemlerimize, amac?m?za ya da iÅŸlevimize baÄŸl? olduÄŸuna inanmak; iradenin ve kaderin, hatta her ikisinin girift bir bileÅŸiminin var olduÄŸuna inanmak.

a lo largo de la historia no ha habido un solo gobernante ni rey que no haya tenido responsabilidad en muertes

Anlam aramaktan ya da bir anlam olduÄŸunu zannetmekten daha kötü bir ÅŸey yoktur. Vard?r asl?nda, daha da beteri vard?r: bir ÅŸeyin, önemsiz bir ayr?nt?n?n bile olsa anlam?n?n bize, eylemlerimize, amac?m?za ya da iÅŸlevimize baÄŸl? olduÄŸuna inanmak; iradenin ve kaderin, hatta her ikisinin girift bir bileÅŸiminin var olduÄŸuna inanmak.

en toda biografía hay un episodio ultrajante o desolado o siniestro, algo o mucho —o es todo— que para los demás es mejor que no exista

Se la echaría en falta, por costumbre más que por aflicción

The present era is so proud that it has produced a phenomenon which I imagine to be unprecedented: the present's resentment of the past, resentment because the past had the audacity to happen without us being there, without our cautious opinion and our hesitant consent, and even worse, without our gaining any advantage from it.

I knew that Sundays in England aren't just ordinary dull Sundays, the same the world over, which demand that one simply tiptoe through without disturbing them or paying them the least attention, they are vaster and slower and more burdensome than anywhere else I know.

He'll be a minister in Spain some day, or, at the very least, ambassador to Washington, he's exactly the kind of pretentious fool with just a thin veneer of cordiality that the Right produces by the dozen and which the Left reproduces and imitates whenever they're in power, as if they were the victims of some form of contagion.

So who does shape the world, then? Who is in a position to do that?

It's so sad that no one writes down the things we go through, and even worse - no one will ever know about it, no one will ever see or hear about it, no one will ever be able to restore.

Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous.

Not to gain time, but maybe to lose it, to see it pass.

Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous.

Listening is the most dangerous thing of all, listening means knowing, finding out about something and knowing what's going on, our ears don't have lids that can instinctively close against the words uttered, they can't hide from what they sense they're about to hear, it's always too late.

La gente empieza viendo una cosa y acaba viendo la contraria. Empieza amando y acaba odiando, o sintiendo indiferencia y después adorando. Nunca logramos estar seguros de qué va a sernos vital ni de a quién vamos a dar importancia. Nuestras convicciones son pasajeras y endebles, hasta las que consideramos más fuertes.También nuestros sentimientos.

I have a tendency to want to understand everything people say and everything I hear, both at work and outside, even at a distance, even if it's one of the innumerable languages I don't know, even if it's in an indistinguishable murmur or imperceptible whisper, even if it would be better that I didn't understand and what's said is not intended for my ears or is said precisely so I won't understand it.

What happened is the least of it. It's a novel, and once you've finished a novel, what happened in it is of little importance and soon forgotten. What matters are the possibilities and ideas that the novel's imaginary plot communicates to us and infuses us with, a plot that we recall far more vividly than real events and to which we pay far more attention.

Es curioso cómo el pensamiento incurre en lo inverosímil, cómo se lo permite momentáneamente, cómo fantasea o se hace supersticioso para descansar un rato o encontrar alivio, cómo es capaz de negar los hechos y hacer que retroceda el tiempo, aunque sea un instante. Cómo se parece al sueño.

The truth never shines forth, as the saying goes, because the only truth is that which is known to no one and which remains untransmitted, that which is not translated into words or images, that which remains concealed and unverified, which is perhaps why we do recount so much or even everything, to make sure that nothing has ever really happened, not once it's been told.

I had stayed still and let the days pass, which is the best way to allow things in the real world to dissolve or break down, although they remain forever in our thoughts and in our knowledge, solid and putrid and stinking to high heaven. But that is bearable and we can live with it. Who doesn't carry something of that nature around with them?

Some people think that being in love or infatuated is a modern invention that appears only in novels. Be that as it may, it nevertheless exists, the invention, the word, and our capacity for such a feeling.

Everything can be ridiculous or tragic according to who is doing the telling or how they tell it.