226 Quotes by Julio Cortázar

feel the same thing I feel standing in front of certain (very few) paintings or drawings by the Surrealists: that for a second I’m on the other side, that they have helped me cross over, that I’m you.

Casi siempre tuve que abrir los ojos a la ceniza de un amanecer, buscar una bata fría y ver llegar la fatiga anterior a todo esfuerzo, el sabor a pizarra de un día interminable. No sé vivir sin cansancio, sin dormir; no sé por qué la noche odia mi sueño y lo combate, murciélagos afrontados sobre mi cuerpo desnudo.

And do you accept the idea that there is no explanation?

I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does

Human history is the sad result of each one looking out for himself.

The short-story writer knows that he can't proceed cumulatively, that time is not his ally. His only solution is to work vertically, heading up or down in literary space.

Literature is ... a game, but it's a game one can put one's life into.

One of the many ways of contesting level-zero, and one of the best, is to take photographs, an activity in which one should start becoming adept very early in life, teach it to children since it requires discipline, aesthetic education, a good eye and steady fingers.

Salt and the center of the world have to be there, in that spot on the tablecloth.