Roberto Bolaño

“To be a writer is to be a lonely person.”

“A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.”

“There are times when it's advisable to be a bit naive.”

“To be a writer is to be a kind of priest.”

“What is a ruin but time trapped in a place.”

“Anyone who has read a little knows that the holy books are full of monsters.”

“The history of Latin America is the history of our lost opportunities.”

“Every hundred feet the world changes.”

“The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is wash my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”

“Nothing is ever behind us.”

“Reading is like thinking, like praying, like talking to a friend, like expressing your ideas, like listening to other people's ideas, like listening to music, like looking at the view, like taking a walk on the beach.”

“Only in chaos are we conceivable.”

“There's a time for reciting poems and a time for fists.”

“Happiness is a battle.”

“Literature is a dangerous calling.”

“We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain.”

“And that's how it is, sometimes you have to be a stranger to your own failures.”

“The secret of literature is to be frivolous.”

“In the end, something is lost and something is gained.”

“When one is young, one is arrogant.”