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)
Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.
Every man is a Ulysses, and every woman a Penelope.
The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.
There is no other world. There is only this one, and it is a dream.
The future is inevitable, but it is not necessary.
Like all men, I have been many men, and among those men, I have been a hero, a coward, a saint, a murderer, a lover, a traitor, a king, a beggar, a god, a devil, a poet, a philosopher, a madman.
I am a man who has been many men, and among those men, I have been a hero, a coward, a saint, a murderer, a lover, a traitor, a king, a beggar, a god, a devil, a poet, a philosopher, a madman.
The future is not what it used to be.
The world is a book, and those who do not read travel only one page.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of a book that contains all other books.
To sleep is to die a little.
The world is a labyrinth, and we are all lost in it.
The universe is a dream, and we are all dreaming it.
Reality is not always probable, or even plausible.
I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers I have read, all the people I have met, all the women I have loved; all the cities I have visited, all the ancestors I have had.
I write for myself, for my friends, and to ease the passage of time.
My life has been a succession of books.
The universe is a library, and I am a blind librarian.
Perhaps the greatest love is not to love at all, but to dream of love.
Every man is a book, and every book is a world.
Contemporaries of Jorge Luis Borges
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986).