Quote

Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary.

Mario Vargas Llosa

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Mario Vargas Llosa
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: March 28
Dramaturge
Essayist
Film Director
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Politician
Prosaist
Life
Since
Refuge
Lying
Literary
Actually
Happenings
Read
Happening
Dream
Illusion
Become
Circumstances
Peruvian
Take
Strange
Peruvians
Really
Impossible
Invent

More quotes by Mario Vargas Llosa

Image
In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
Journalism is a way of voicing opinion, of participating in the political, social, or cultural debate.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
Do the rhetorical quarrels of bourgeois political parties have anything to do with the interests of the humble and downtrodden?
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
I write because I'm unhappy. I write because it's a way of fighting unhappiness.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
I couldn't imagine any other way of living, outside of books, outside my work. Which doesn't mean I am not interested in other things, of course - I am interested in many things. But the center, the crux, is always literature.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
Its easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably appears in great literature: that men and women of all nations and places are essentially equal, and only injustice sows among them discrimination, fear, and exploitation.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
We were trained as writers with the idea that literature is something that can change reality, that it's not just a very sophisticated entertainment, but a way to act.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
We must mistrust utopias: they usually end in holocausts.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
But what do I have? The things I'm told and the things I tell, that's all. And as far as I know, that never yet made anyone fly.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
It is rare and almost impossible for a novel to have only one narrator.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
The worst thing that can happen to an artist is to be subsidized by the state. It leads to an intellectual and artistic castration.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
There are people with a lot of prejudice, a lot of fear of the unknown. They think that immigration is a danger, when really it is a solution. This is an interesting issue, because it will be a central question of our time.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
There are many things behind a good novel, but in particular there is a lot of work - a lot of patience, a lot of stubbornness, and a critical spirit.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
The secret to happiness, at least to peace of mind, is knowing how to separate sex from love. And, if possible, eliminating romantic love from your life, which is the love that makes you suffer. That way, I assure you, you live with greater tranquility and enjoy things more.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Image
North American society could not have reached its state of high development and modernity had it not been an open society.
Mario Vargas Llosa