Guillermo Cabrera Infante > Quotes

“If the sleep of reason produces monsters, what does the sleep of unreason produce?”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“Así que así era yo y no había quien me cambiara, porque pasaba el tiempo y me ponía viejo y los días pasaban y se convertían en fecha y los años se convertían en efemérides y yo seguía así, quedándome con las noches, metiéndolas en un vaso con hielo o en un negativo o en el recuerdo”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“[]no hay dos miradas a una mujer desnuda iguales, no hay dos desnudeces exactas, como no existe las misma ave a cazar, aunque haya sido cazada antes, escapada y vuelta a cazar en el mismo sitio, el momento las hace diferentes.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La Habana para un infante difunto

“Чувствах се много принизен и същевременно странно екзалтиран. Не съм глупав, но се влюбвам като последния тъпак. Сега тя ме беше превърнала в магаре. Метаморфозата ми беше пълна.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La ninfa inconstante

“За една наносекунда успях да видя нещо в очите й, което го нямаше преди и изчезна за миг. Една наносекунда може да трае цяла вечност и да бъде мярата на вселената. Моите познания по астрология, астрономия, ми позволиха да измеря погледа й. Тя, в своите очи, в този безкрайно кратко продължил момент, не беше тя. Беше чужда. Отчуждена.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La ninfa inconstante

“Тогава разбрах, че любовта не е нищо друго освен едно фатално съвпадение – да си на точното място в неточното, тъпо и напълно неудачно време.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La ninfa inconstante

“por eso detesto las masturbaciones yacentes”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La Habana para un Infante Difunto

“I didn’t want one coffee so I drank three.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“I believe that writers, unless they consider themselves terribly exquisite, are at heart people who live by night, a little bit outside society, moving between delinquency and conformity.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante

“Because the dictionary created its suspense with one word lost in a wood of woods (not like needles in a haystack which are easy to find, but one particular pin in a pincushion) and there was the wrong word and the word innocent and the word guilty and the word-assassin and the word-police and the word-chase and the word-rescue-patrol in the last word-reel and lastly the word end, and because the suspense of the dictionary lay in seeing oneself looking desperately for a word up and down the columns until one found it and when it turned up seeing that it meant something different, this was better than one's surprise at the last real...”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“Because the dictionary created its suspense with one word lost in a wood of words (not like needles in a haystack which are easy to find, but one particular pin in a pincushion) and there was the wrong word and the word innocent and the word guilty and the word-assassin and the word-police and the word-chase and the word-rescue-patrol in the last word-reel and lastly the word end, and because the suspense of the dictionary lay in seeing oneself looking desperately for a word up and down the columns until one found it and when it turned up seeing that it meant something different, this was better than one's surprise at the last real...”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“Почувствах нова тревога, някаква тъга. На мястото на стомаха ми имаше празнота, неотстъпна пропаст. Без съмнение се бях влюбил, бях влюбен и любовта беше като невидима луна там, където луната е най-видима. Боже мой, това ли беше подир всичко любовта?”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La ninfa inconstante

“I bump against the railings and begin to go down the stairs cursing them: one foot in the void/ another foot into the abyss/ another one into nowhere. When'll they turn on the lights in this fucking house?”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Three Trapped Tigers

“Severa era muy habanera.) Consiste en una agresividad casi masculina, al hablar y al moverse y al enfrentarse con cualquier otra persona que presente un reto, sobre todo con los hombres. Severa era muy liberal con las malas palabras y tenía un sentido del humor agudo pero vulgar, eso que se llamó relajo, sustantivo tan usado en La Habana, en tantos sentidos, todos bordeando el tema erótico, cuando no cayendo en la pornografía, al mismo tiempo que insinúa la falta de respeto a todo.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La Habana para un Infante Difunto

“Lo siento por Macedonio Fernández, por Borges y tal vez por Bioy Casares, aunque estoy dispuesto a alegrarme por Derrota Ocampo: el mate no hace una cultura.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres

“La memoria es una traductora simultánea que interpreta los recuerdos al azar o siguiendo un orden arbitrario: nadie puede manipular el recuerdo y quien crea que pueda es aquel que está más a merced del arbitrio de la memoria.”
― Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La Habana para un infante difunto