José Baroja Quotes

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“We are just cogs and nuts of a few stupid people in power.”

“In democracy, wishing bad for an incoming government is like buying a gun, buying the bullets, loading it and wishing to be killed with it: sovereign dogmatic stupidity.”

“We longed to be in the middle of some neophyte gaze of some library entity, of someone rediscovering paper.”

“Without money there is no lasting imagination in this city!”

“If we focus only on making money, people's knowledge will be reduced until we become experts in our subject, but ignorant about human beings.”

“We know well that there is poverty in Latin America, beyond the beauty of our nations.”

“I never feel like a text is completely finished. Over and over again I reread it, preferably out loud, until a certain tiredness leads me to send it to the editor, who will decide whether it is published or not.”

“For me, the important thing is still the people.”

“I think of the northern country, the United States, where they are specialists, very good at what they do, but sometimes, many times, they have no memory of the things that have happened, because they are so interested in raising money that the past is blurred and give meaning to ignorance on the basis of consumption.”

“I believe that academics do not flow naturally with this world, since, many times, the Academy, from those all-knowing egos, which are not lacking, turns the literary into a mere object lacking spirit.”

“Current school education in the United States is so bad that the only thing they got in 2025 was a bad Trump.”

“That apartment was the only property he truly owned—his own as much as a rental can be.”

“Overcome by that mix of cowardice and curiosity typical of 1980s horror movies, where we all knew the protagonists shouldn’t go that way, he knew he shouldn’t look—but he did.”

“Probably, the eccentricities of those who visited the establishment meant nothing to him, especially if they were accompanied by a generous tip.”

“Los Prisioneros were always right: for the 'gringos,' Latin America is still just one country south of the United States.”

“The biggest mistake of the average wage earner is forgetting that no company has or will ever have a human heart.”

“In the end, it's just everyday life and forgetting, because there's nothing fantastic about people having to die every day.”

“Neofascism dresses up in makeup, glamour, and pure spectacle.”

“…the Moon is there, up above, still, shining, hiding every wound that time has marked her body.”

“She was such a beautiful, delicate apparition that she was on the verge of reciting a verse by Huidobro or Neruda right there, dedicated, by the way, to the little rose.”

“Bad education aren't just a problem for those at the bottom or in the middle; they're also a problem for those at the top, who are certain of their untouchability.”

“Pedestrians, passersby, civilians, citizens, couples, singles, children of God, move from side to side, miserable in their ignorance.”

“The moon is red, sensing the future, it has dressed up for its gala, or the Devil has decorated it.”

“Has he gained weight?" He smiles a pathetic smile, seeing his reflection, sweaty and "almost dead," projected there on the glass of a dismantled display case full of mannequins.”

“Such was his desire that when he mentioned that El Lazarillo was the work of an anonymous author, all he could imagine was how much he would now wish to become that absolute ANON.”

“…the stories already published acquire, over the years, a different value than they had at their genesis: whether for better or for worse.”

“Latin American government decisions, in general terms, discourage the development of the arts, turning artists into true martyrs of a cause, creating a vicious cycle in which ordinary people fail to notice the importance of cultural development, focusing on money as the axis of their lives.”

“He still felt love for someone who had plainly and simply decided to forget him.”

“Probably those once accompanied walks had turned out to be such an intense, though brief, experience that, beyond time, his subconscious continued to long for a presence that was no longer there.”

“The beauty of art is in our imperfection.”

“Silence has become omnipresent and seemingly infinite for many miles, even longer than your mind can remember.”

“As if already destined for the seventh circle, a shudder stops him from heading toward the unknown, toward the beautifully fatal.”

“At times, he yearns for the few pockets of darkness that remain on this night so illuminated by that cursed moon, by the despicable stars, by the cursed vehicles, by the hateful city.”

“It must certainly be considered true that once a work leaves our pen, it no longer belongs to us.”

“Can someone suffering from hunger or abuse really be encouraged to read a book?”

“He still blamed himself for having believed someone who, without a doubt, lied better than he did.”

“Although he still continued to go out walking alone, it was also true that with every outing, in each of them, he used to feel something strange and dark accumulating within him.”

“Having accepted this, there was nothing left but to adapt to the new conditions, a task that cost him a world or perhaps two.”

“Undoubtedly, he feared that smile”

“I must say that in Chile, the supremacy of the Market as the all-powerful governing body has made the development of the cultural field even more difficult than in Mexico.”

“Just a moment ago, he was certainly contemplating a shadow on the ground, and now he was the shadow contemplating himself.”

“Proud to be a "damn South American" and not a "suck-up" to the United States.”

“From the margins, one can speak with irony, tenderness, and rage.”

“Poets are here to disturb the status quo.”

“Does literature change social reality? Perhaps not. But it reveals it, brings it into the conversation—which is no small thing. It puts it in tension with reality itself. It strips it of its masks. It takes away the official discourse, or at least makes it squirm.”

“The city is not just a setting, but also a character with its own voice.”

“The city becomes an ideal metaphor for how I perceive human beings.”

“Literature must avoid propaganda or moralism if it truly wants to be critical and open.”

“Walking with open senses reveals stories in the smallest everyday details.”