Formas de volver a casa Quotes

“To read is to cover one's face. And to write is to show it.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Formas de volver a casa

“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

“Leer es cubrirse la cara, pensé.
Leer es cubrirse la cara. Y escribir es mostrarla”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Growing up, I meant to be a memory.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“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, Formas de volver a casa

“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

“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

“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

“Que aunque queramos contar historias ajenas terminamos siempre contando la historia propia.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Formas de volver a casa

“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

“That although we might want to tell other people’s stories, we always end up telling our own.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“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

“Nuestro problema fue justamente ese, que no mentíamos. Fracasamos por el deseo de ser honestos siempre.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Hace años descubrí que quería una vida normal. Que quería, sobre todo, estar tranquila. Ya viví las emociones, todas las emociones. Quiero una vida tranquila, simple. Una vida con paseos por el parque.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Leer es cubrirse la cara. Y escribir es mostrarla.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“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

“To read is to cover one’s face. And to write is to show it.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“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

“A nadie le hace bien tanta proximidad con el pasado. El pasado nunca deja de doler pero podemos ayudarlo a encontrar un lugar distinto”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Las palabras te protegen.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Na época não sabíamos o nome das árvores ou dos pássaros. Não era necessário. Vivíamos com poucas palavras e era possível responder a todas as perguntas dizendo: não sei. Não achávamos que isso fosse ignorância. Chamávamos de honestidade. Depois aprendemos, pouco a pouco, os matizes. Os nomes das árvores, dos pássaros, dos rios. E decidimos que qualquer frase era melhor que o silêncio.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Caminhei ontem à noite durante horas. Era como se quisesse me perder por alguma rua nova. Me perder absoluta e alegremente. Mas há momentos em que não podemos, não sabemos nos perder. Ainda que tomemos sempre as direções erradas. Ainda que percamos todos pontos de referência. Ainda que se faça tarde e sintamos o peso do amanhecer enquanto avançamos. Há temporadas em que, por mais que tentemos, descobrimos que não sabemos, que não podemos nos perder. E talvez tenhamos saudade do tempo em que podíamos nos perder. O tempo em que todas as ruas eram novas.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“Y finalmente viene la frase temida y esperada, el límite que no puedo, que no voy a tolerar: Pinochet fue un dictador y todo eso, mató a alguna gente, pero al menos en ese tiempo había orden.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“En cuanto a Pinochet, para mí era un personaje de la televisión que conducía un programa sin horario fijo, y lo odiaba por eso, por las aburridas cadenas nacionales que interrumpían la programación en las mejores partes. Tiempo después lo odié por hijo de puta, por asesino, pero entonces lo odiaba solamente por esos intempestivos shows que mi papá miraba sin decir palabra, sin regalar más gestos que una piteada más intensa al cigarro que llevaba siempre cosido a la boca.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“به شغلم فکر می‌کنم، این کسب و کار غریب، حقیر، پرنخوت، ضروری و ناکافی: یک عمر تماشا، یک عمر نوشتن.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

“به زمان گذشته درباره‌ی ئه‌مه حرف می‌زنم. واقعیتی غم‌انگیز و ساده است: او دیگر نیست. ضمناً باید یاد بگیرم درباره‌ی خودم هم به زمان گذشته حرف بزنم.”
― Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home