Literature is ... a game, but it's a game one can put one's life into. Julio Cortazar More Quotes by Julio Cortazar More Quotes From Julio Cortazar [Heaven is] that moment in which something attains its maximum depth, its maximum reach, its maximum sense, and becomes completely uninteresting. Julio Cortazar depthmomentsheaven Everything can be killed except nostalgia for the kingdom, we carry it in the color of our eyes, in every love affair, in everything that deeply torments and unties and tricks. Julio Cortazar coloreyekingdoms Skill alone cannot teach or produce a great short story, which condenses the obsession of the creature; it is a hallucinatory presence manifest from the first sentence to fascinate the reader, to make him lose contact with the dull reality that surrounds him, submerging him in another that is more intense and compelling. Julio Cortazar skillsstoriesreality Wordplay hides a key to reality that the dictionary tries in vain to lock inside every free word. Julio Cortazar keystryingreality (memory is) A strange echo, which stores its replicas according to some other acoustic than consciousness or expectation. Julio Cortazar echoesexpectationsmemories The best literature is always a take [in the musical sense]; there is an implicit risk in its execution, a margin of danger that is the pleasure of the flight, of the love, carrying with it a tangible loss but also a total engagement that, on another level, lends the theater its unparalleled imperfection faced with the perfection of film. I don’t want to write anything but takes. Julio Cortazar perfectionlosswriting Once in a while it happens that I vomit up a bunny... it's not reason for one to blush and isolate oneself and to walk around keeping one's mouth shut. Julio Cortazar bunniesmouthsreason The modern story begun, one might say, with Edgar Allan Poe, which proceeds inexorably, like a machine destined to accomplish its mission with the maximum economy of means. Julio Cortazar machinesstoriesmean Happy was she who could believe without seeing, who was at one with the duration and continuity of life. Julio Cortazar continuity-of-lifedurationbelieve Human history is the sad result of each one looking out for himself. Julio Cortazar selfish-worldselfishnessresults After the age of 50 we begin to die little by little in the deaths of others. Julio Cortazar diesagelittles The unusual is only found in a very small percentage, except in literary creations, and that is exactly what makes literature. Julio Cortazar unusualcreationliterature We no longer believe because it is absurd: it is absurd because we must believe. Julio Cortazar absurdbelieve What good is a writer if he can't destroy literature? And us... what good are we if we don't help as much as we can in that destruction? Julio Cortazar destructionliteraturehelping 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. Julio Cortazar zeroeyechildren Memory weaves and traps us at the same time according to a scheme in which we do not participate: we should never speak of our memory, for it is anything but ours; it works on its own terms, it assists us while deceiving us or perhaps deceives up to assist us. Julio Cortazar deceivingspeakmemories There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls. I went to see them at the aquarium at the Jardin des Plantes and stayed for hours watching them, observing their immobility; their faint movements. Now I am an axolotl. Julio Cortazar aquariumshoursmovement Before going back to sleep I imagined (I saw) a plastic universe, changeable, full of wondrous chance, an elastic sky, a sun that suddenly is missing or remains fixed or changes its shape. Julio Cortazar missingskysleep I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story itself. Julio Cortazar vanitystoriesthinking Now that I think about it, it seems to me that’s what Idiocy is: the ability to be enthusiastic all the time about anything you like, so that a drawing on the wall does not have to be diminished by the memory of the frescoes of Giotto in Padua. Julio Cortazar wallmemoriesthinking
