You can say that literature is about topics like love, death, and all that, but I think there is only one topic that applies to all literature and that is belonging. Alejandro Zambra More Quotes by Alejandro Zambra More Quotes From Alejandro Zambra To read is to cover one's face. And to write is to show it. Alejandro Zambra shows faces writing I knew little, but at least I knew that: no one could speak for someone else. That although we might want to tell other people's stories, we always end up telling our own. Alejandro Zambra stories life people I was going to be a memory when I grew up. Alejandro Zambra grew grew-up memories Every story, every poem, every written piece is about belonging. There is a me, there is a we, there is an us, and we want to belong to it or we don't want to belong. You can read every story with this as its main focus. Alejandro Zambra pieces focus stories I remember thinking, without pride of self-pity, that I was not rich or poor, that I wasn't good or bad. But that was difficult: to be neither good nor bad. It seemed to me, in the end, the same as being bad. Alejandro Zambra rich-or-poor pride thinking If you write, and you are really alone (writing is a lonely thing), you learn to be alone without suffering. When you read, you also learn to do this. When you write, you deal with things. Alejandro Zambra lonely suffering writing The ways in which a standardized language test induces storytelling, for example, is the opposite of creative writing; you have to learn a logical way to start a story, whereas in creative writing you may begin at the end or begin at the middle of the story. Alejandro Zambra creative opposites writing I am still trying to find out things. And I inevitably tell myself the story in different ways every time I think about it. Alejandro Zambra different trying thinking We rely too much on the people we share our lives with. We hold them responsible for things they are not even aware of. We start blaming them. Alejandro Zambra blame too-much people For me, writing is a way of finding out about things I didn't know before I began writing. Alejandro Zambra findings writing way Publishing my book is like giving it away. At first you start talking about it, but you are basically letting go. I won't say it's like giving birth because I haven't given birth. It's more like when your children leave home. Alejandro Zambra letting-go book children I don't have any doubts that I need writing. I need it personally because this is the way I think. Alejandro Zambra doubt writing thinking I've been writing most of my life; it's just something I do. Alejandro Zambra writing You're looking for something, I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'm looking. Writing is a lot about that. When you write a poem. When you write a novel. Alejandro Zambra novel knows writing Everything has been said and everything has been done, but you still feel like you are looking for something. Alejandro Zambra like-you done said I think about Chilean literature as a family, because I grew up reading the literature of my country. I feel like I have fathers and stepfathers and a lot of brothers and sisters and distant cousins and all that. Alejandro Zambra cousin brother country I was a nerdy kid and I was writing and showing other fellows who are still my friends what I was writing. We were sharing that and kept sharing it. The experiences they had were so different than mine. Alejandro Zambra different writing kids As a child, all you see is that adults are not playing. Adults are not talking too much. Adults don't want to relate to each other. Alejandro Zambra adults talking children When you read a novel, you know what to expect because you've been reading novels for a long time. Alejandro Zambra novel reading long The stories on standardized tests don't have one author, therefore they can never authentically be in the first person. Imagine that! Everywhere, there are these tests that have been written by multiple people. Alejandro Zambra stories people firsts
