49 Quotes by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

There is no more disastrous mania, no more dangerous whim, than the speculation over roads not taken.

The city was poisoned with the venom of small fundamentalisms, and the venom ran beneath us, like dirty water in the sewers.

What you call history is no more than the winning story, Vásquez. Someone made that story win, and not any of the others, and that's why we believe it today. Or rather: we believe it because it got written down, because it wasn't lost in the endless hole of words that only get said, or even worse, that aren't even spoken, but are only though. (p.450-451)

Where does the past go when it changes?

Lo importante en nuestra sociedad no es lo que pasa, sino quién cuenta lo que pasa.

In few places is there such a high concentration of hypocrisy as at a writer’s funeral.

The I realized no one wants to hear heroic stories, but everyone likes to be told about someone else's misery.

El olvido era lo único democrático en Colombia: los cubría todos, a los buenos y a los malos, a los asesinos y a los héroes como la nieve en el cuento de Joyce, cayendo sobre todos por igual.

The world's a scary place these days. Grandpa,, you've seen worse things, haven't you? Please tell me the world has always been like this.