Jorge Luis Borges
Master of metaphysical fiction and labyrinths
Most quoted
"A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art."
— from Interview with Richard Burgin, 1967
"A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face."
— from Epilogue to 'The Maker', 1960
"I foresee that man will resign himself each day to more atrocious undertakings; soon there will be no one but warriors and brigands; I give them this counsel: The author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past."
— from The Garden of Forking Paths, 1944
All quotes by Jorge Luis Borges (325)
The world is a poem, and I am a poet.
I am a man who believes in the power of metaphors. I am a man who believes that metaphors can illuminate the unknown.
I have always been a man who loves mirrors. I have always been a man who loves reflections.
The world is a riddle, and I am a solver.
I am a man who believes in the power of irony. I am a man who believes that irony can expose the absurdities of life.
I have always been a man who loves libraries. I have always been a man who loves books.
The world is a stage, and I am an actor.
I am a man who believes in the power of skepticism. I am a man who believes that skepticism can lead to deeper understanding.
I have always been a man who loves the impossible. I have always been a man who loves the improbable.
The world is a paradox, and I am a paradox.
All literature is an autobiography.
The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite, number of hexagonal galleries.
The future is inevitable, but it is not certain.
Every man is a soldier in a war against himself.
Sleep is a fragment of death.
The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.
Mirrors and copulation are abominable, for they multiply the number of men.
There is no such thing as an original work of art. All art is a reinterpretation of what has come before.
The universe is a dream of God.
The world is an infinite labyrinth.
Contemporaries of Jorge Luis Borges
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986).