quotation from a plastic bag from libreria del teatro el galpon, av 18 de julio 1618-20

Uno no se llega a ser quien es por lo que escribo sino por lo que lee.

Jorge Luis Borges

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what he said in caracas

What then is writing of quality? Well, what it has always been: knowing to stick one’s head into the dark, knowing to jump into the void, knowing that literature is basically a dangerous occupation. To run along the edge of the precipice: on one side the bottomless abyss and on the other the faces one loves, the smiling faces one loves, and books, and friends, and food. And to accept that fact, though sometimes it may weigh on us more than the flagstone that covers the remains of every dead writer. Literature, as an Andalusian folk song might say, is dangerous.

bolano

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2 quotations courtesy of enrique vila-matas

To those who ask me the reason for my travels, I tend to respond: I am well aware of what I am fleeing from, but not what I am searching for. In any case it's better to exchange a bad state for an uncertain one.

Montaigne

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The soul while travelling is constantly being exercised as it observes new and unknown things; and I know of no better school for the formation of life than consistently bringing before it the diversity of so many other lives.

Montaigne

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