So I do not consider myself a chronicler of my fatherland or even a chronicler of Havana Guillermo Cabrera Infante More Quotes by Guillermo Cabrera Infante More Quotes From Guillermo Cabrera Infante I think writers rush in where everybody is very frightened to tread Guillermo Cabrera Infante bedtime frightened thinking When I write, the first blank page, or any blank page, means nothing to me. What means something is a page that has been filled with words. Guillermo Cabrera Infante literature writing mean I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city. Guillermo Cabrera Infante cities writing thinking Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity. Guillermo Cabrera Infante cuban-cigars leisure world If the sleep of reason produces monsters, what does the sleep of unreason produce? Guillermo Cabrera Infante doe monsters sleep What I do believe is that there is always a relationship between writing and reading, a constant interplay between the writer on the one hand and the reader on the other Guillermo Cabrera Infante powerful reading believe Writing for me, even what you call serious writing, is play. Guillermo Cabrera Infante serious play writing A good smoker, like a good lover, always takes his time with a cigar. Guillermo Cabrera Infante good-love cigar lovers When I write, I enjoy myself so much that what is being written really needs no reader Guillermo Cabrera Infante literature writing needs I believe that writers, unless they consider themselves terribly exquisite, are at heart people who live by night, a little bit outside society, moving between delinquency and conformity Guillermo Cabrera Infante heart believe moving I read the Odyssey because it was the story of a man who returned home after being absent for more than twenty years and was recognized only by his dog. Guillermo Cabrera Infante dog home friendship No, absolutely not, writing doesn't have to be like a jigsaw puzzle, it can be a very linear undertaking. Guillermo Cabrera Infante jigsaw-puzzles literature writing I am a writer of fragments. Guillermo Cabrera Infante fragments I was an avid radio fan when I was a boy, as well as a great lover of comic strips Guillermo Cabrera Infante alaska avid boys The relationship between reader and characters is very difficult. It is even more peculiar than the relationship between the writer and his characters. Guillermo Cabrera Infante peculiar literature character I think all writing is done through memory Guillermo Cabrera Infante writing memories thinking I left my country because I was forced to, and I do not think that I am going to lose my language because I live in England Guillermo Cabrera Infante literature country thinking It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down. Guillermo Cabrera Infante literature writing mean I know that many writers have had to write under censorship and yet produced good novels; for instance, Cervantes wrote Don Quixote under Catholic censorship. Guillermo Cabrera Infante catholic literature writing That is what I define as a novel: something that has a beginning, a middle and an end, with characters and a plot that sustain interest from the first sentence to the last. But that is not what I do at all. Guillermo Cabrera Infante lasts writing character
