Daniel Alarcón > Quotes

“The city was lovely. There could be no place in the world to which he belonged so completely.
That was why he'd always dreamed of leaving, and why he'd always been so afraid to go.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“Nepotism is the lowest and least imaginative form of corruption.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“That morning, he was afraid of becoming old, and it was a very specific kind of old age he feared, one which had nothing to do with the number of years since your birth. He feared the premature old age of missed opportunities.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“Nothing builds community like complaining.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“You don’t sound like a scientist, you sound like a poet.”

Rey smiled, “Can I be both?”

But you’d rather be a poet.”

Who wouldn’t?” he said.”
― Daniel Alarcon

“What does the end of a war mean if not that one side ran out of men willing to die?”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“They spoke of the crowds that had filled the plaza: the people, always myopic, always easy to fool.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“What does a car bomb say about poverty, or the execution of a rural mayor explain about disenfranchisement?...
The war had become, it it wasn't from the beginning, an indecipherable text.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“Memory is a great deceiver, grief and longing cloud the past, and recollections, even vivid ones, fade.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“A man should cause an impression," she said. "He should leave you with something to think about. Without that, there's no magic.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“The bond between parent and child is chemical, fierce, and inexplicable, even if that parent is a sworn killer. This connection cannot be measured; it at once more subtle and more powerful than science.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“He admired this too: their ability to preserve joy at any cost, the way prehistoric man might have preserved fire.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“He imagined her impressed by his maturity, by his willingness to share her with another man. But this formulation was partial. It did not take into account the fact that she’d loved him, or that he’d broken her heart. It did not consider that her heart might be broken still, or that every time they slept together, it broke a little more.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“Are you a politician?
I hate politicians, he said. And, in any case, there's no such thing anymore: only sycophants and dissidents.”
― Daniel Alarcon, Lost City Radio

“Luz's manner of speaking made it clear that she had no idea what she might say next. It wasn't that she made things up, strictly speaking--only that facts were merely a point of departure for her.”
― Daniel Alarcón

“Heartbreak is like shattered glass: while it's impossible that two pieces could splinter in precisely the same pattern, in he end, it doesn't matter, because the effect is identical.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“The phone collapsed distances, just as the radio did, and, like the radio, it relied on the miracle of imagination: one had to concentrate deeply, plunge headlong into it.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“And what does he feel?"
"He feels uneasy. A little afaid. Angry. Oddly, a hint of pride."
"Good," Henry said. "ANd where are you?"
"Backstage."
Henry shook his head gravely. "THere's no such thing as backstage. The play begins, and there's only the world it dramatizes. Now, where are you?"
"With my father, the president. In his chambers."
"Right. With me. Your father. And now--this is important--do you love me?"
Nelson considered this; or rather, Nelson, as Alejo, considered this.
"Yes," he said after a moment. "I do."
"Good. Remember that. In every scene--even when you hate me, you also love me. That's why it hurts. Got it?"
Nelson said that he did.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Good. Because it does hurt," Henry said. "DOn't forget that. It's supposed to. Always.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“You don't sound like a scientist; you sound like a poet."
Rey smiled.
"Can I be both?"
"But you'd rather be a poet."
"Who wouldn't?" he said.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio

“There was a problem: No one cared about human rights anymore, not at home or abroad. They cared about growth--hoped for and celebrated in all the newspapers, invoked by zealous bureaucrats in every self-serving television interview. On this matter, the filmmaker was agnostic--he came from money, and couldn't see the urgency. Like many of his ilk, he sometimes confused poverty (which must be eradicated!) with folklore (which must be preserved!), but it was a genuine confusion, without a hint of ill intention, which only made it more infuriating.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“They spoke without much fluency about a minor universe of events that affected neither of them: the vagaries of neighborhood life, people they both knew but didn't much care about.”
― Daniel Alarcón

“used to plan endlessly, but it never made much difference. Everything happens in the actual writing, for me. Now I just live in a book for three years or so. The computer is always on. I make decisions. I revise decisions. The book falls apart. The book comes together in a different way. The new book falls apart. I hold my nerve. The book I start writing—the easy, confident, public book—always turns fraudulent, for me, and I realize that I have”
― Daniel Alarcón, The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook

“But if what a novel exudes has not been felt properly or seriously or deeply enough by the writer, then it will show and I will become tremendously bored and irritated.”
― Daniel Alarcón, The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook

“Ellos no querían hablar sobre la guerra, suponía él, querían hablar sobre sus tíos, sus primos, sus vecinos en aquellos pueblos que abandonaron hacía tanto tiempo; sobre cómo era el olor de la tierra en su hogar, el ruido de la lluvia al caer en ráfagas sobre las copas de los árboles, los colores chillones de la campiña en flor.”
― Daniel Alarcón, Radio Ciudad Perdida

“The story always starts with the character. In a way, there’s no decision. If there’s no character there’s no story.”
― Daniel Alarcón, The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook

“Let’s take the city for example. I love that place-I realize this is a controversial statement in this crowd, but I do. Listen. I love its grey skies, its rude people, its disorder, its noise. I love the stories I’ve lived there, the landmarks...”
― Daniel Alarcón, The King Is Always Above the People: Stories

“These emotions are quite beside the point now, like an artifact looted from an ancient grave, an oddly shaped tool whose utility no one can quite decipher.”
― Daniel Alarcón

“Melankoli adeta kimyasalmış. Havada asılıymış. Sabahları kokusunu duyabilirmişsin.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“But I also think I have never seen it in a book—the thing I needed to read, just then, and this feeling makes me agitated and restless: it makes me want to write the book where someone could find the thing I needed to read in the last seven or eight years.”
― Daniel Alarcón, The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook

“Writing is nothing if not solving problems you’ve created for yourself. There are no outside solutions or methods.”
― Daniel Alarcón, The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook