Mexico City Noir Quotes

“Mimicry flows like beauty from Mexico City’s faucets, space and time are relative, and instead of the usual floral-and-stone façade, there’s dahlia and obsidian. In the course of time, what was yesterday a lake of water becomes asphalt today, and the past is a perpetual duplication that drowns the future. Yesterday’s omens come back, the same substance in a different shape. The city is a nagual that becomes a wall of skulls, an intelligent domotique structure: the Huitzilopochtli temple in a cathedral and Castile roses in cactus bouquets. Time is measured simultaneously with the Aztec, Julian, and Gregorian calendars and the cesium fountain atomic clock; the heart of Mexico City is made of mud and green rocks, and the God of Rain continues to cry over the whole country.”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir

“because we live in Mexico City, we make rounds with the spirits of Huitzilopochtli,”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir

“That’s the thing, chato. I’m not the one to tell it, and you aren’t the one to hear it, but rest assured that it’d be pretty tough to figure out …”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir

“were to ask whether the writers recommend visiting Mexico City, the response would be both firm and passionate: “Yes, of course.” Because this is the best city on the planet, in spite of itself.”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir

“the only way to stop the violence and abuse that surrounds us is to talk about it.”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir

“I’ve said many times that statistics reveal a surprising city: one that has more movie theaters than Paris, more abortions than London, more universities than New York. Where nighttime has become sparse, desolate, the kingdom of only a few. Where violence rules, corners us, silences us into a kind of autism.”
― Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexico City Noir