The short-story writer knows that he can't proceed cumulatively, that time is not his ally. His only solution is to work vertically, heading up or down in literary space. Julio Cortazar More Quotes by Julio Cortazar More Quotes From Julio Cortazar I think we all have a little bit of that beautiful madness that keeps us walking when everything around us is so insanely sane. Julio Cortazar littles beautiful thinking What most people call loving consists of picking out a woman and marrying her. They pick her out, I swear, I’ve seen them. As if you could pick in love, as if it were not a lightning bolt that splits your bones and leaves you staked out in the middle of the courtyard. They probably say that they pick her out because-they-love-her, I think it’s just the siteoppo. Beatrice wasn’t picked out, Juliet wasn’t picked out. You don’t pick out the rain that soaks you to a skin when you come out of a concert. Julio Cortazar rain life thinking Come sleep with me: We won't make Love,Love will make us. Julio Cortazar sleep love relationship Of all our feelings the only one which really doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life itself defending itself. Etcetera. Julio Cortazar hopscotch etcetera feelings Only in dreams, in poetry, in play do we sometimes arrive at what we were before we were this thing that, who knows, we are. Julio Cortazar dream play sometimes But what is memory if not the language of feeling, a dictionary of faces and days and smells which repeat themselves like the verbs and adjectives in a speech, sneaking in behind the thing itself,into the pure present, making us sad or teaching us vicariously. Julio Cortazar smell teaching memories All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate. Julio Cortazar distraction doors profound The evolution from happiness to habit is one of death's best weapons. Julio Cortazar habit evolution weapons In quoting others, we cite ourselves. Julio Cortazar citing quoting soul I sometimes longed for someone who, like me, had not adjusted perfectly with his age, and such a person was hard to find; but I soon discovered cats, in which I could imagine a condition like mine, and books, where I found it quite often. Julio Cortazar cat age book Only by living absurdly is it possible to break out of this infinite absurdity. Julio Cortazar infinite break-out break Time is born in the eyes, everybody knows that. Julio Cortazar born eye time Memory is a mirror that scandalously lies. Julio Cortazar memories lying past She would smile and show no surprise, convinced as she was, the same as I, that casual meetings are apt to be just the opposite, and that people who make dates are the same kind who need lines on their writing paper, or who always squeeze up from the bottom on a tube of toothpaste. Julio Cortazar opposites writing life As if you could pick in love, as if it were not a lightning bolt that splits your bones and leaves you staked out in the middle of the courtyard. (...) You don't pick out the rain that soaks you to the skin when you come out of a concert. Julio Cortazar lightning skins rain I'm such a jerk; it had never occurred to me that when we look at a photo from the front, the eyes reproduce exactly the position and the vision of the lens; it's these things that are taken for granted and it never occurs to anyone to think about them. Julio Cortazar eye taken thinking I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses. Julio Cortazar compass mind night The novel wins by points, the short story by knockout. Julio Cortazar knockouts stories winning We know that attention acts as a lightning rod. Merely by concentrating on something one causes endless analogies to collect around it, even penetrate the boundaries of the subject itself: an experience that we call coincidence, serendipity – the terminology is extensive. My experience has been that in these circular travels what is really significant surrounds a central absence, an absence that, paradoxically, is the text being written or to be written. Julio Cortazar serendipity lightning attention A short story relies on those values that make poetry and jazz what they are: tension, rhythms, inner beat, into unforeseen within foreseen parameters Julio Cortazar beats jazz stories
