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 future is inevitable, but not necessarily predictable.
I have always preferred the labyrinth to the straight path.
To live is to be constantly reborn.
I am a dreamer who sometimes wakes up.
Love is a secret that reveals itself.
I am grateful for the books that have shaped me.
The mirror is a terrible thing, for it shows us what we are, and what we are not.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of infinite libraries.
To be blind is to live in a world of endless possibilities.
The past is a dream, the future a fantasy, only the present is real.
Love is a labyrinth, and I am lost within it.
I am a creature of habit, and my habits are books.
I am a collection of memories, and my memories are my life.
Every word is a universe, and every sentence a galaxy.
To be a writer is to be a god, creating worlds with words.
I have always been a solitary man, even in a crowd.
Love is a game, and I am a player who always loses.
I am a citizen of the world, and my passport is my imagination.
The library is my home, and books are my family.
I am a paradox, a contradiction, a mystery.
Contemporaries of Jorge Luis Borges
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986).