“When writers die they become books, which is, after all, not too bad an incarnation.”

— Jorge Luis Borges

Source: [As attributed by Alastair Reid in, The New Yorker, June 24, 1996; as well as in, The New Yorker, July 7, 1986]

Last update June 10, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When writers die they become books, which is, after all, not too bad an incarnation." by Jorge Luis Borges?

Jorge Luis Borges 213

Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

Related quotes

“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.”

P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist

As quoted in The New York Times (2 July 1978)

“One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives.”

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) Indian nationalist leader and politician

"Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians" at Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html

“Perhaps I wasn't going crazy after all. Perhaps I was just becoming a writer.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: Just One Wish

“Life is too short to read a bad book.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

“There are all kinds of writers. The best writers write children's books.”

Richard Scarry (1919–1994) author and illustrator from the United States

Source: Busy, Busy Town

“How I began to write is different than how I became a writer. They are two different things. Many people write but they do not become writers. To become a writer is a job. It involves planning and it affects all parts of your life. Even what you eat—being a writer means not eating food with too much rich sauce to avoid taking a long afternoon nap! It’s like being a professional athlete. And a writer must choose between being a sprinter who writes a book, and being a writer who creates an oeuvre. If you want to create an oeuvre, you have to be careful not to put all your energy into the first book. You have to have a vision for the long term...”

Dany Laferrière (1953) Haitian Canadian novelist and journalist

On how he became a writer in “An Interview with Dany Laferrière” https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/an-interview-with-dany-laferriere-jessie-chaffee (WWB Daily, 2016)