Paco Ignacio Taibo II Quotes & Sayings

They watched the rain and downed their Cokes like a pair of diabetics in a suicide pact. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

because we live in Mexico City, we make rounds with the spirits of Huitzilopochtli, — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

What they don't know is that we all belong to the places we've never even been before. If there's any kind of legitimate nostalgia, it's for everything we've never seen, the women we've never slept with, never dreamed of, the friends we haven't made, the books we haven't read, all that food steaming in the pots we've never eaten out of. That's the only kind of real nostalgia there is. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

To write a novel is fundamentally an act of impudence. To comb one's hair is also an act of impudence, especially when it's done to try to cover a scar running across the top of one's forehead. But combing one's hair is an act of minor impudence, whereas writing is a more serious affair. We mask reality, we hide our fears, we reinvent things that have been said, and above all, the people who said them. Writing a novel implies a certain perversity. It's not something one can do with a tortoiseshell comb. It is perhaps for that reason that they take away my pen at night. Not, as they pretend, to prevent me from accidentally stabbing myself in the throat with it- but to prevent me from killing anyone else. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

If there is any kind of legitimate ostalgia, it's for everything we've never even seen, the women we've never slept with, never dreamed of, the friends we haven't made, the books we've never read, all the food steaming in the pots we've never eaten out of. That's the only real kind of nostalgia there is. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

I've said many times that statistics reveal a surprising city: one that has more movie theaters than Paris, more abortions than London, more universities than New York. Where nighttime has become sparse, desolate, the kingdom of only a few. Where violence rules, corners us, silences us into a kind of autism. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

the only way to stop the violence and abuse that surrounds us is to talk about it. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II

were to ask whether the writers recommend visiting Mexico City, the response would be both firm and passionate: "Yes, of course." Because this is the best city on the planet, in spite of itself. — Paco Ignacio Taibo II