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Ways of Going Home QUOTES

Ways of Going Home QUOTES

1 " Now I think it's a good thing to lose confidence in the solidity of the ground, I think it's necessary to know that from one moment to the next everything can come tumbling down. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

2 " To read is to cover one's face. And to write is to show it. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

3 " I knew little, but at least I knew that: no one could speak for someone else. That although we might want to tell other people's stories, we always end up telling our own. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

4 " Leer es cubrirse la cara, pensé.
Leer es cubrirse la cara. Y escribir es mostrarla "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

5 " Because we can't, we don't know how to talk about a movie or a book anymore; the moment has come when movies and novels don't matter, only the time we saw them, read them: where we were, what we were doing, who we were then. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

6 " I remember thinking, without pride of self-pity, that I was not rich or poor, that I wasn't good or bad. But that was difficult: to be neither good nor bad. It seemed to me, in the end, the same as being bad. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

7 " Sabía poco, pero al menos sabía eso: que nadie habla por los demás. Que aunque queramos contar historias ajenas terminamos siempre contando la historia propia "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

8 " Parents abandon their children. Children abandon their parents. Parents protect or forsake, but they always forsake. Children stay or go but they always go. And it's all unfair, especially the sound of the words, because language is pleasing and confusing, because ultimately we would like to sing or at least whistle a tune, to walk alongside the stage whistling a tune. We want to be actors waiting patiently for the cue to go onstage. But the audience left a long time ago. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

9 " The novel belongs to our parents, I thought then, I think now. That's what we grew up believing, that the novel belonged to our parents. We cursed them, and also took refuge in their shadows, relieved. While the adults killed or were killed, we drew pictures in a corner. While the country was falling to pieces, we were learning to talk, to walk, to fold napkins in the shapes of boats, of airplanes. While the novel was happening, we played hide-and-seek, we played at disappearing. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

10 " Growing up, I meant to be a memory. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

11 " I always thought I didn't have real childhood memories. That my history fit into a few lines. One one page, maybe. In large print. I don't think that anymore. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

12 " She lay on the bed to read a novel; she wanted to forget that bitter conversation and be carried along by the plot, but it was impossible, because the book was about parents who abandoned their children or children who abandoned their parents. Ultimately, that's what all books are about, she thought. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

13 " What greater happiness than to know that move exists, that I can watch it many times, that I can watch it always. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

14 " Back then death was invisible for children like me, who went outside, running fearlessly along those fantastical streets, safe from history. The night of the earthquake was the first time I realized that everything could come tumbling down. Now I think it's a good thing to know. It's necessary to remember it every second. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

15 " To read is to cover one’s face. And to write is to show it. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

16 " That although we might want to tell other people’s stories, we always end up telling our own. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

17 " É impressionante como o rosto de uma pessoa amada -- o rosto de alguém com quem já vivemos, a quem julgamos conhecer, talvez o único rosto que seríamos capazes de descrever, que contemplamos durante anos, desde uma distância mínima -- é bonito, e de certo modo, é terrível saber que até esse rosto pode liberar de repente, inesperadamente, gestos novos. Gestos que talvez nunca voltemos a ver. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

18 " وقتی بزرگ می‌شدم می‌خواستم خاطره باشم. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

19 " Leer es cubrirse la cara. Y escribir es mostrarla. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home

20 " Por la noche, sin embargo, aparecieron en mi pieza para decirme que me castigarían con una semana sin salir. Por qué me castigan si se rieron tanto, pregunté, enojado. Porque mentiste, dijo mi padre. "

― Alejandro Zambra , Ways of Going Home