Alejandro Zambra > Quotes

“What's the purpose of being with someone if they don't change your life? She said that, and Julio was present when she said it: that life only had purpose if you found someone who changed it, who destroyed your life.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Bonsaï

“To read is to cover one's face. And to write is to show it.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Formas de volver a casa

“¿Qué sentido tiene estar con alguien si no te cambia la vida?
[...] la vida sólo tenía sentido si encontrabas a alguien que te la cambiara, que destruyera tu vida.”
― Alejandro Zambra

“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, Ways of Going Home

“Se ama para dejar de amar y se deja de amar para empezar a amar a otros, o para quedarse solos, por un rato o para siempre. Ese es el dogma. El único dogma.”
― Alejandro Zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“Pero quién no es, de vez en cuando, una mancha en la vida de alguien”
― alejandro zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“Leer es cubrirse la cara, pensé.
Leer es cubrirse la cara. Y escribir es mostrarla”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Masturbarse pensando en la persona amada es, como se sabe, la más fogosa prueba de fidelidad.”
― alejandro zambra, Poeta chileno

“Dicen que eso es la felicidad: nunca sentir que sería mejor estar en otra parte, nunca sentir que sería mejor ser alguien más.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“Because we can't, we don't know how to talk about a movie or a book anymore; the moment has come when movies and novels don't matter, only the time we saw them, read them: where we were, what we were doing, who we were then.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Sabía poco, pero al menos sabía eso: que nadie habla por los demás. Que aunque queramos contar historias ajenas terminamos siempre contando la historia propia”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“El padre señala con sutileza y autoridad la forma correcta de patear la pelota, porque el padre sabe de esas cosas. El padre se deja ganar, porque para ser un buen padre hay que dejarse ganar. Ser padre consiste en dejarse ganar hasta el día en que la derrota sea verdadera.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“Eran como dos desconocidos buscando desesperadamente un tema en común; parecía que hablaban de algo y estaban juntos, pero sabían que en realidad no hablaban de nada y estaban solos.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“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, Ways of Going Home

“A los dieciocho años tenía todo tan claro. Creía que era valiente porque había desafiado a su familia. Creía que era inteligente porque leía a los griegos, porque aprendía latín, porque citaba a Derrida. Incluso antes, mucho antes de los dieciocho, a los diez, a los doce años, tenía un plan: hablar de otra manera, vivir de otra manera, pensar de otra manera, romper todos los espejos de la casa hasta olvidar alegremente, definitivamente su rostro.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“Parents abandon their children. Children abandon their parents. Parents protect or forsake, but they always forsake. Children stay or go but they always go. And it's all unfair, especially the sound of the words, because language is pleasing and confusing, because ultimately we would like to sing or at least whistle a tune, to walk alongside the stage whistling a tune. We want to be actors waiting patiently for the cue to go onstage. But the audience left a long time ago.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Es una historia de amor, nada demasiado particular: dos personas construyen, con voluntad e inocencia, un mundo paralelo que, naturalmente, muy pronto se viene abajo”
― Alejandro Zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“Growing up, I meant to be a memory.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Sería preferible cerrar el libro, cerrar los libros, y enfrentar, sin más, no la vida, que es muy grande, sino la frágil armadura del presente.”
― Alejandro Zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“Quizás existe una palabra para designar lo contrario del duelo, lo que se siente no después de que alguien muere sino cuando reaparece; lo que se siente cuando de súbito recuperamos a alguien que había permanecido ausente hasta de nuestros sueños.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“Hubiera sido mejor echarle la culpa a la poesía, pero habría sido mentira, porque ahí están esos poemas que acaba de leer, poemas que demuestran que la poesía sí sirve para algo, que las palabras duelen, vibran, curan, consuelan, repercuten, permanecen.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“El mundo se cae a pedazos y casi siempre todo se va a la mierda y casi siempre dañamos a las personas que queremos o ellas nos dañan a nosotros irremediablemente y no parece haber motivos para albergar ninguna clase de esperanza, pero al menos esta historia termina bien, termina aquí, con la escena de estos dos poetas chilenos que se miran a los ojos y que lanzan risotadas y que por ningún motivo quieren irse de ese bar, así que piden otra ronda de cerveza.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Poeta chileno

“The day you were born was the happiest day of my life, but I was so nervous that I don’t know if happiness is really the best word to describe what I felt. I think it is my obligation to tell you, in spite of the absolute love I have always felt for you, in spite of how much you have brightened my life, and I assume your mother’s as well—I haven’t seen her in around ten years now, but I’m sure that for her as well you have been a constant source of happiness—in spite of all that, I have to tell you that during the eighteen years you’ve now been alive, I’ve never stopped wondering what my life would have been like if you had never been born.

It’s an overwhelming thought, an exit that leads to the darkest of nights, to the most complete blackness, but also to shadow and sometimes, slowly, toward something like a clearing in the woods. These fantasies are normal, but it’s not so common for parents to confess them. For example, over the years I have thought thousands of times that if you hadn’t been born I would have needed less money, or could have disappeared for weeks on end without worrying about anyone. I could have prolonged my youth for several more years. I could have even killed myself. I mean, the first consequence of your birth was that from then on, I could never kill myself.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Multiple Choice

“The novel belongs to our parents, I thought then, I think now. That's what we grew up believing, that the novel belonged to our parents. We cursed them, and also took refuge in their shadows, relieved. While the adults killed or were killed, we drew pictures in a corner. While the country was falling to pieces, we were learning to talk, to walk, to fold napkins in the shapes of boats, of airplanes. While the novel was happening, we played hide-and-seek, we played at disappearing.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Formas de volver a casa

“É uma história de amor, nada muito especial: duas pessoas constroem, com vontade e inocência, um mundo paralelo que, naturalmente, bem rápido desmorona. É a história de um amor medíocre, juvenil, na qual reconhece sua classe: apartamentos exíguos, meias-verdades, frases de amor automáticas, covardias, fanatismos, ilusões perdidas e depois recuperadas - as bruscas mudanças de destino dos que sobem e descem e não partem nem ficam. Palavras velozes, que antecipam uma revelação que não chega.”
― Alejandro Zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“She asked me later, half-joking, if the characters stay together for the rest of their lives. I couldn't avoid a flicker of annoyance. I answered no: they see each other again as adults and they get involved for a few weeks, maybe months, but in no way do they stay together. I told her it couldn't be like that, it's never like that.
"It's never like that in good novels, but in bad novels, anything is possible.”
― Alejandro Zambra

“N-au mai rămas casete cu amintiri ori sunt goale, golite, fără inele, fără șuvițe de păr, fără scrisori împăturite, aproape rupte, fără fotografii în sepia. Viața e un enorm album în care poți așterne instantanee din trecut, în culori țipătoare și definitive.”
― Alejandro Zambra, The Private Lives of Trees

“un escritor es alguien que escribe, bien o mal pero escribe, poco o mucho pero escribe, así como un asesino es alguien que mata, a uno o a varios, a un desconocido o a su padre, pero mata.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Mis Documentos

“Es bello leer y comentar lo leído un poco antes de enredar las piernas.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Bonsai

“Last night I walked for hours. It was as if I wanted to get lost down some unknown street. To get absolutely and happily lost. But there are moments when we can’t, when we don’t know how to lose our way. Even if we always go in the wrong direction. Even if we lose all our points of reference. Even if it begins to grow late and we feel the weight of morning as we advance. There are times when no matter how we try to find out what we don’t know, we can’t lose our way. And perhaps we long for the time when we could be lost. The time when all the streets were new.”
― Alejandro Zambra