“Literature is not meant to give answers… it is meant to unsettle, to open questions.”
Source: Manuel Raya Escritor. (2026, 21 marzo). ENTREVISTA AL ESCRITOR CHILENO JOSÉ BAROJA 🇨🇱✍🏼 [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrHyubZCFM
“Literature is not meant to give answers… it is meant to unsettle, to open questions.”
Source: Manuel Raya Escritor. (2026, 21 marzo). ENTREVISTA AL ESCRITOR CHILENO JOSÉ BAROJA 🇨🇱✍🏼 [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrHyubZCFM
“We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.”
Variant: We don't even ask for happiness, just a little less pain.
Source: From a letter to William Packard from 1985 (published in Reach for the Sun - the 3rd volume of Bukowski correspondence)
Context: Sex, love, duty, God, family are not to be bargained with against happiness, and we don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.
“The pleasure is not really in writing, it is in reading.”
Source: Manuel Raya Escritor. (2026, 21 marzo). ENTREVISTA AL ESCRITOR CHILENO JOSÉ BAROJA 🇨🇱✍🏼 [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrHyubZCFM
“Slowly losing friends is a part of growing up.”
“If people hate you, then you're probably doing something right”
“I'm just like anyone. I cut and I bleed. And I embarass easily.”
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
Variant: The tragedy in a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.
“Another word for creativity is courage.”
Variant: Creativity takes courage.
“If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit. Never quit!!!”
“If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.”
Senator Barack Obama’s speech to supporters after the Feb. 5 2018 nominating contests, as provided by Federal News Service and released in the New York Times (5 February 2008) https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05text-obama.html
2008
“I never felt right being alone; sometimes it felt good but it never felt right.”
Variant: being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.
Source: Women
“All kings will be reincarnated as lions and employees as flocks of sheep.”
“People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdog anyway!”
“You will hear it for yourself, and it will surely fill you with wonder.”
Source: The Travels
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
Il est encore plus facile de juger de l'esprit d'un homme par ses questions que par ses réponses. (It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers) — Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764-1830), Maximes et réflexions sur différents sujets de morale et de politique (Paris, 1808): Maxim xviii
Misattributed