Juan Gabriel Vasquez Quotes & Sayings

A person doesn't have to do anything but die. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Where does the past go when it changes? — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Now that so many years have passed, now that I remember with the benefit of an understanding I didn't then have, I think of that conversation and it seems implausible that its importance didn't hit me in the face. (And I tell myself at the same time that we're terrible judges of the present moment, maybe because the present doesn't actually exist: all is memory, this sentence that I just wrote is already a memory, this word is a memory that you, reader, just read). — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

The nostalgia for things that weren't yet lost. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

The kind of sadness we tolerate because it appears at happy moments — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

I was also surprised by the alacrity and dedication we devote to the damaging exercise of remembering, which after all brings nothing good and serves only to hinder our normal functioning, like those bags of sand athletes tie around their calves for training. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

In the darkness of the bedroom I thought of that, although thinking in the darkness is not advisable: things seem bigger or more serious in the darkness, illnesses more destructive, the presence of evil closer, indifference more intense, solitude more profound. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

The gradual and imperceptible subsidence of the waters, that's the alluvium. Thus am I gradually left alone, thus have I been left alone. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

The saddest thing that can happen to a person is to find out their memories are lies. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Experience, or what we call experience, is not the inventory of our pains, but rather the learned sympathy towards the pain of others. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

I swear, I have really tried to care about genres or categories, but I find myself sadly unable to do so. I will enjoy anything, anything, as long as it comes written in language that is personal to the point of idiosyncratic, euphonious, revealing and precise. I avoid any kind of writing that doesn't fill these requirements. I don't care which genre it belongs to. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

They talked of intentions and projects, convinced, as only new lovers can be, that saying what you wanted was the same as saying who you are. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

So you fell out of the sky, too? the Little Prince asked the pilot who tells the story, and I thought yes, I'd fallen out of the sky, too, but there was no possible testimony of my fall, there was no black box that anybody could consult, nor was there any black box of Ricardo Laverde's fall, human lives don't have these technological luxuries to fall back on. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

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. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

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

Adulthood brings with it the pernicious illusion of control, and perhaps even depends on it. I mean that mirage of dominion over our own life that allows us to feel like adults, for we associate maturity with autonomy, the sovereign right to determine what is going to happen to us next. Disillusion comes sooner or later, but it always comes, it doesn't miss an appointment, it never has. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Remembering tires a person out. this is something they don't teach us. Exercising one's memory is an exhausting activity. It draws our energy and wears down our muscles. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Elaine complained about this at night, in her matrimonial bed, and then complained that in Colombia all the citizens were political but no politician wanted to do anything for the citizens. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Her face was like a party that everyone had left. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

I read somewhere that a man should tell the story of his life at the age of forty, and this deadline is fast approaching as I write these lines, only a few short weeks remain before this ominous birthday arrives. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Sometimes I think," he told me the only time we talked somewhat seriously, "I've never looked anyone in the eye." It was an exaggeration, but I'm not sure the man was exaggerating on purpose. After all, he wasn't looking me in the eye when he said those words. — Juan Gabriel Vasquez