Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism. Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes by Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes From Jorge Luis Borges I think of myself as being an ethical man, but I don't try to teach ethics. I have no message. I know little about contemporary life. I don't read a newspaper. I dislike politics and politicians. I belong to no party whatever. My private life is a private life. I try to avoid photography and publicity. Jorge Luis Borges party photography men I would rather like to think of God as being a kind of adventurer - even as Wells thought about him - or perhaps as something within us making for some unknown purpose. Jorge Luis Borges kind purpose thinking Unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential. Jorge Luis Borges essentials purpose stories My friends tell me that I am an intruder, that I don't really write when I attempt poetry. But those of my friends who write in prose say that I'm no writer when I attempt prose. So really I don't know what to do, I'm in a quandary. Jorge Luis Borges prose writing It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given a handful of metaphors. Jorge Luis Borges metaphor different may Im merely a dreamer, and then a writer, and my happiest moments are when I'm a reader. Jorge Luis Borges dreamer moments Although I'm very lazy when it comes to writing, I'm not that lazy when it comes to thinking. I like to develop the plan of a short story, then cut it as short as possible, try to evolve all the necessary details. I know far more about the characters than what actually comes out of the writing. Jorge Luis Borges cutting writing character As to my writing short pieces, there are two reasons I can give you. The first is my invincible laziness. The second is that I've always been fond of short stories, and it always took me some trouble to get through a novel. Jorge Luis Borges writing giving two I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. Jorge Luis Borges letters men philosophy I have used the philosophers' ideas for my own private literary purposes, but I don't think that I'm a thinker. I suppose that my thinking has been done for me by Berkeley, by Hume, by Schopenhauer, by Mauthner perhaps. Jorge Luis Borges purpose ideas thinking I came to the idea of how fine it would be to think of an encyclopedia of an actual world, and then of an encyclopedia, a very rigorous one of course, of an imaginary world, where everything should be linked. Jorge Luis Borges would-be ideas thinking I'm not interested in the fact that a writer may label himself as being intellectual or anti-intellectual. l'm really interested in the stuff he's turning out. Jorge Luis Borges labels intellectual may A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face. Jorge Luis Borges horse stars men I suppose identity depends on memory. And if my memory is blotted out, then I wonder if I exist - I mean, if I am the same person. Of course, I don't have to solve that problem. It's up to God, if any. Jorge Luis Borges identity memories mean I might accept immortality, if I had to do it. But I would prefer - if there is any afterlife - to know nothing whatever about Borges, about his experiences in this world. Jorge Luis Borges afterlife might world You don't have to try to be contemporary. You are already contemporary. What one has in mythology is being evolved all the time. Personally, I think I can do with Greek and Old Norse mythology. For example, I don't think I stand in need of planes or of railways or of cars. Jorge Luis Borges car greek thinking My books standing there on the shelf do not know that I have written them. Jorge Luis Borges standing-there shelves book A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. Jorge Luis Borges resources believe thinking I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future . . . I felt myself to be, for an unknown period of time, an abstract perceiver of the world. Jorge Luis Borges labyrinth past world I am almost sure to be blotted out by death, but sometimes I think it is not impossible that I may continue to live in some other manner after my physical death . Or, as Hamlet wonders, what dreams will come when we leave this body? Jorge Luis Borges body dream thinking
