"That's a pretty story,' said Afanasievna as she let go of Ansky's genitals. 'A pity I'm too old and have seen to much to believe it.'It has nothing to do with belief,' said Ansky, 'it has to do with u..."
- Roberto Bolaño
"We're artists too, but we do a good job hiding it, don't we?"
"Reading is more important than writing."
"For her, reading was directly linked to pleasure, not to knowledge or enigmas or constructions or verbal labyrinths…"
"And I thought:History is like a horror story."
"An individual is no match for history."
"The pain, or the memory of pain, that here was literally sucked away by something nameless until only a void was left. The knowledge that this question was possible: pain that turns finally into empti..."
"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 (oh yes), like looking at the view, like t..."
"You have to listen to women. You should never ignore a woman's fears."
"The heart of the matter is whether knowing evil (or sin or crime or whatever you want to call it) is random or purposeful. If it's purposeful, we can fight it, it's hard to defeat, but we have a chanc..."