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I have assiduously avoided calling my books novels

Guillermo Cabrera Infante

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Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Age: 75 †
Born: 1929
Born: April 22
Died: 2005
Died: February 21
Essayist
Journalist
Linguist
Novelist
Poet
Screenwriter
Translator
Writer
Guillermo Cain
Assiduously
Avoided
Novels
Calling
Novel
Books
Book

More quotes by Guillermo Cabrera Infante

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I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.
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I do not believe in inspiration, but I must have a title in order to work, otherwise I am lost
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Many of my books have begun with the title, because naming a work already in progress makes no sense to me.
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But I do not have the reader in mind when I write. No true writer does that
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A good smoker, like a good lover, always takes his time with a cigar.
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I live in London and I am a British subject, although I do write in Spanish, of course
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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Well, I write in exile because I cannot return to my country, so I have no choice but to see myself as an exiled writer.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I was able to read a movie before I was able to read a book
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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What I do believe is that there is always a relationship between writing and reading, a constant interplay between the writer on the one hand and the reader on the other
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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That is what I define as a novel: something that has a beginning, a middle and an end, with characters and a plot that sustain interest from the first sentence to the last. But that is not what I do at all.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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A very wise author once said that a writer writes for himself, and then publishes for money. I write for myself and publish just for the reader
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I read the Odyssey because it was the story of a man who returned home after being absent for more than twenty years and was recognized only by his dog.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I wrote for a weekly magazine and then edited a literary magazine, but I did not really feel comfortable with the profession of journalism itself
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I am the only British writer who writes in Spanish
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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American literature had always considered writing a very serious matter
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I first came out against Castro in June 1968, fifteen months after my book had been published, and you cannot imagine how quickly a void was created around me
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I don't much believe in the idea of characters. I write with words, that is all. Whether those words are put in the mouth of this or that character does not matter to me
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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I don't have any style.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
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When I write, the first blank page, or any blank page, means nothing to me. What means something is a page that has been filled with words.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante