Mac and His Problem Quotes

“...the beginner, satisfied with the happy state of the beginner, able to travel from his place at the window, never losing sight of the fact that he is content with the comfortable grayness of his modest knowledge.
In short: let others advance.
Or, as Malamud would say: perhaps it would be more useful to settle into the stubbornly modest gray classroom and accept it as it is, like an eternal Monday in nursery school. After all, we don't know if things aren't better that way: deliberately insufficient.”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo

“You don’t need to look for anything. Believe me, your life — the one and only great adventure — is enough.” “What a cliché!” I replied.”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac's Problem

“in literature, what we call progress doesn’t exist, just as, for example, we don’t get better at dreaming over time:”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac's Problem

“Some novels even overdramatize events, which, in real life, happen in a far more unassuming and inconsequential way; they happen, then they're over, they run into one another, floating like clouds scattered by the wind between the odd deceptive pause that turns out to be impossible, because time—which no one understands—stops for nothing.”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo

“La creatividad es la inteligencia divirtiéndose”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo

“algo que me ha llamado últimamente la atención: que haya tantos narradores que se crean preparados para escribir una novela; se sienten tan increíblemente preparados que en su inagotable vanidad están convencidos de que la harán y la harán muy bien”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo

“el proceso de escribir propiamente dicho es el que permite al autor descubrir lo que quiere decir”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo

“escribir es dejar de ser escritor”
― Enrique Vila-Matas, Mac y su contratiempo