Quotessence
Home / Authors / Julio Cortazar Books
Julio Cortazar

Julio Cortazar Books

Novelist

Bestiario

A source page for quotes linked to Julio Cortazar.

0 quotes

Hopscotch

A source page for quotes linked to Julio Cortazar.

0 quotes

Rayuela

A source page for quotes linked to Julio Cortazar.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“I raised the camera, pretended to study a focus which did not include them, and waited and watched closely, sure that I would finally catch the revealing expression, one that would sum it all up, life that is rhythmed by movement but which a stiff image destroys, taking time in cross section, if we do not choose the essential imperceptible fraction of it.”

IfsStudyFocusMovementExpressionEssentialsCrossesCamerasRaisedTake TimeSectionsRevealingFractions
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image

“One of the many ways of contesting level-zero, and one of the best, is to take photographs, an activity in which one should start becoming adept very early in life, teach it to children since it requires discipline, aesthetic education, a good eye and steady fingers.”

WayShouldChildrenEyeLevelsTeachBecomingDisciplineActivityFingersPhotographZeroSteadyAestheticAdeptLife Teaches
Book:Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much
Create image

“She would smile and show no surprise, convinced as she was, the same as I, that casual meetings are apt to be just the opposite, and that people who make dates are the same kind who need lines on their writing paper, or who always squeeze up from the bottom on a tube of toothpaste.”

PeopleLifeNeedsWritingKindShowsLinesPaperOppositesMeetingsSurpriseBottomConvincedCasualTubesToothpasteHopscotch
Book:Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much
Create image

“The best literature is always a take [in the musical sense]; there is an implicit risk in its execution, a margin of danger that is the pleasure of the flight, of the love, carrying with it a tangible loss but also a total engagement that, on another level, lends the theater its unparalleled imperfection faced with the perfection of film. I don’t want to write anything but takes.”

WantWritingFilmLiteratureLossPleasureLevelsRiskDangerPerfectionTheaterMusicalFlightImperfectionEngagementExecutionMarginsTangibleImplicitBest Literature
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image

“Skill alone cannot teach or produce a great short story, which condenses the obsession of the creature; it is a hallucinatory presence manifest from the first sentence to fascinate the reader, to make him lose contact with the dull reality that surrounds him, submerging him in another that is more intense and compelling.”

FirstsStoriesRealityLosesTeachProduceReaderSkillsCreaturesSentencesIntenseObsessionContactDullSurroundManifestShort StoryCompellingGreat Short
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image

“We know that attention acts as a lightning rod. Merely by concentrating on something one causes endless analogies to collect around it, even penetrate the boundaries of the subject itself: an experience that we call coincidence, serendipity – the terminology is extensive. My experience has been that in these circular travels what is really significant surrounds a central absence, an absence that, paradoxically, is the text being written or to be written.”

KnowsHas BeensCausesAttentionWrittenSubjectsAbsenceSignificantBoundariesEndlessSurroundLightningCoincidencePenetrateAnalogiesConcentratingSerendipityTerminology
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image

“But what is memory if not the language of feeling, a dictionary of faces and days and smells which repeat themselves like the verbs and adjectives in a speech, sneaking in behind the thing itself,into the pure present, making us sad or teaching us vicariously.”

IfsFeelingsFacesLanguageMemoriesBehindsTeachingPureSpeechSmellRepeatsDictionaryVerbsAdjectivesHopscotch
Book:Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much
Create image

“You're like a witness. You're the one who goes to the museum and looks at the paintings. I mean the paintings are there and you're in the museum too, near and far away at the same time. I'm a painting. Rocamadour is a painting. Etienne is a painting, this room is a painting. You think that you're in the room but you're not. You're looking at the room, you're not in the room.”

ThinkingLooksMeanRoomsPaintingWitnessMuseumsFar AwayNear And Far
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image

“What most people call loving consists of picking out a woman and marrying her. They pick her out, I swear, I’ve seen them. As if you could pick in love, as if it were not a lightning bolt that splits your bones and leaves you staked out in the middle of the courtyard. They probably say that they pick her out because-they-love-her, I think it’s just the siteoppo. Beatrice wasn’t picked out, Juliet wasn’t picked out. You don’t pick out the rain that soaks you to a skin when you come out of a concert.”

PeopleIfsThinkingLifeMiddlePicksRainSkinsBonesConcertsSplitsLightningSwearBoltsMarryingJulietLightning BoltsHopscotchMarrying Her
Author:Julio Cortazar
Create image