Good literature always ends up showing those who read it... the inevitable limitation of all power to fulfill human aspirations and desires. Mario Vargas Llosa More Quotes by Mario Vargas Llosa More Quotes From Mario Vargas Llosa We were trained as writers with the idea that literature is something that can change reality, that it's not just a very sophisticated entertainment, but a way to act. Mario Vargas Llosa realitywayideas It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around. Mario Vargas Llosa animalroomsmoving There are many things behind a good novel, but in particular there is a lot of work - a lot of patience, a lot of stubbornness, and a critical spirit. Mario Vargas Llosa stubbornnesscritical-spiritnovel I write because I'm unhappy. I write because it's a way of fighting unhappiness. Mario Vargas Llosa fightingunhappywriting Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections. Mario Vargas Llosa stakeselectiondemocracy I completely believe that - literature for me is a way of life. That's probably true of all writers or all artists. I think in the end this kind of activity absorbs one in such a way that it becomes one's way of life. Mario Vargas Llosa artistbelievethinking I don't accept the idea that literature can be just entertainment and that there is no consequences of literature in the real world. Mario Vargas Llosa realliteratureideas Liberty is inseparable from social justice, and those who dissociate them, sacrificing the first with the purpose of attaining the second more quickly, are the true barbarians of our time. Mario Vargas Llosa sacrificelibertyjustice I have a chest full of all the insults, villainies, and infamies a man is capable of withstanding. . . . If you become famous, you will have to go through that. Mario Vargas Llosa infamyinsultmen I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature. Mario Vargas Llosa has-beensliteraturethinking In general, I think my freedom of invention is not limited when I use historical characters. Mario Vargas Llosa historicalcharacterthinking Men do not live by truth alone; they also need lies: those that they invent freely, not those that are imposed on them; those that appear as they are, not smuggled in beneath the clothes of history. Fiction enriches their existence, completes them and, fleetingly, compensates them for this tragic condition which is our lot: always to desire and dream more than we can actually achieve. Mario Vargas Llosa dreammenlying Science is still only a candle glimmering in a great pitch-dark cavern. Mario Vargas Llosa cavernsstillsdark Do the rhetorical quarrels of bourgeois political parties have anything to do with the interests of the humble and downtrodden? Mario Vargas Llosa politicalpartyhumble The foundations of liberty are private property and the rule of law; this system guarantees the fewest possible forms of injustice, produces the greatest material and cultural progress, most effectively stems violence and provides the greatest respect for human rights. According to this concept of liberalism, freedom is a single, unified concept. Political and economic liberties are as inseparable as the two sides of a medal. Mario Vargas Llosa two-sidesrightslaw I think in a country like mine, violence is at the root of all human relations. Mario Vargas Llosa rootscountrythinking Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories. Mario Vargas Llosa lonelylonelinessmemories Whether religious or racial, anti-Semitism is always repugnant, one of the most destructive manifestations of human stupidity and evil. What is profoundly expressed in it is man's traditional mistrust of the man who is not part of his tribe, that 'other' who speaks a different language, whose skin is a different color, and who participates in mysterious rites and rituals. Mario Vargas Llosa colorreligiousmen writing fiction is the best thing there is because absolutely everything is possible! Mario Vargas Llosa writing-fictionwritingfiction Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion. Mario Vargas Llosa equalitysacrificereal
