213 Quotes by Mario Vargas Llosa

I think yellow journalism is something that appears everywhere, in the underdeveloped and developed worlds alike.

Eroticism is born at a time in civilisation when sexual instinct becomes deanimalised and enriched with contributions from art and from literature. A world of theatricality emerges around the act of love.

Reality is the richest thing there is, the most important thing there is. Our imagination allows us to live an artificial life that is wonderful, extremely rich, but I don't believe any artist would dare to say that artifice is better than real life.

Couldn't imagine any other way of living, outside of books, outside my work. Which doesn't mean I am not interested in other things, of course - I am interested in many things. But the center, the crux, is always literature.

When I was at university in the Fifties, Latin America was full of dictators. Trujillo was the emblematic figure because, of course, of his cruelty, corruption, extravagance, and theatricalities.

I learnt to read when I was five, and I think that is the most important thing that happened to me.

I am not going to participate in professional politics again.

If you live in a country where there is nothing comparable to free information, often literature becomes the only way to be more or less informed about what's going on.

Iraq is better without Saddam Hussein than with Saddam Hussein. Without a doubt.