The Unworthy Quotes

“There are times I think that none of this matters. Why put myself in danger with this book of the night? But I have to because if I write it, then it was real; if I write it, maybe we won’t just be part of a dream contained in a planet, inside a universe hidden in the imagination of someone who lives in the mouth of God. Each of these words contains my pulse. My blood. My breath.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“I wonder if God is the hunger behind hunger, and if behind god lurks the hunger for another God”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“Burning a book made me angry because I knew I was setting fire to a world.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“What is it like to hear the words emitted by the mouth of God? Are they small, ephemeral explosions? Does his tongue cradle death? God is hungry”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“The feelings return so clearly when I write that I don’t doubt the faithfulness of my memories, my fabrications. I try to capture that present, that now, but it blurs with every word drawn, every time I use this insufficient language.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“Lucía has made me feel things I’ve forgotten, like mercy. It’s no longer silent dynamite, but something else; it’s like a new heart, beating inside the old one.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“Maybe one day, in some future now, someone will
read what I have written and learn of our existence. That we were part of a Sacred Sisterhood and lived on a sliver of land that remained pure, resplendent, thanks to the piety of the Enlightened.
Or maybe they’ll become dust and return to the earth, fertilizing it, nourishing the roots of a tree, and our story will be understood through the leaves that oxygenate the collapsed world.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“curiosidad, pero me fui asqueada. Sentí olor a rabia como si hubiese espinas en el aire, pero no me fui por eso. Me fui porque cuando vi los estantes sin libros me quedé sin aliento, y un dolor agudo me golpeó en el pecho,”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“The truth is a sphere. We never see it whole, in its entirety. It slips down our throats, through our thoughts... The truth is changeable, it contracts, implodes, it's powerful like a bullet. And it can be lethal.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“What is it like to heat the words emitted by the mouth of God? Are they small, ephemeral explosions? Does his tongue cradle death? God is hungry”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“olía como imagino que huele el color negro,”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“Each of these words contains my pulse, my blood, my breath. If I write it down, she returns to the present of my memory. I see her clearly.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“We knew they were cruel like us, but that they were not loyal to one another like we were. We who treated each other's wounds, who shared food and water equally, who slept with our arms around each other to keep warm.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“That was when I still had a mother who taught me to read and write; who handled books with care, saying they were marvels contained in paper, calling them our friends; a mother who celebrated life through small acts, every day; whose luminous presence found beauty in the world that was degrading minute by minute.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“Quemar un libro me daba rabia, porque sabía que incendiaba un mundo”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“trataba a los libros con cuidado porque decía: son maravillas contenidas en papel”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“There are times I think that none of this matters. But I have to because if I write it, then it was real; if I write it, maybe we won’t just be a part of a dream contained in a planet, inside a universe hidden in the imagination of someone who lives in the mouth of God. Each of these words contains my pulse. My blood. My breath”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“The glass with images of the erroneous God, the false son, the negative mother, the God unable to contain the avarice and stupidity of his flock, the God who let them poison the nucleus of the only thing that mattered. This God, who left us adrift in a poisoned world, cannot be named or looked at.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy

“todo lo que decía eran palabras sin palabras dentro,”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“Pero cuando iba a abrir la boca, Lucía dijo con su voz amarilla, con sus palabras de lobo: me ofrezco a caminar sobre brasas ardientes.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“Sus pasos son como incendios.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“Su voz era como el color azul oscuro de las golondrinas en vuelo,”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“Huele a transpiración y a suciedad, pero lo que predomina es el aroma de algo dulce y feroz, como el azul de un cielo límpido, un azul como de piedra preciosa.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas

“un olor como una música, como un incendio en el que uno quiere ser quemado.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Las indignas