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José Saramago

137 quotes

“...eu já estava na vigésima parte do livro, triste, quando senti que o livro podia ser escrito. Percebi que só seria capaz de escrevê-lo se o fizesse como se contasse. Não passando para a escrita o chamado discurso oral, porque isso é impossível, mas introduzindo na escrita um me-canismo de aparente prolixidade, aparente desor-ganização do discurso. Digo aparente porque sei o trabalho que me deu fazer de conta que era tudo assim.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Idéias, no. 107 (15 October 1988), trans. Margaret Jull Costa.
“Deus é o silêncio do universo, e o homem o grito que dá um sentido a esse silêncio.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lanzarote Notebooks (1990), quoted in The Notebook, entry for 9 October 2008.
“Le religioni, tutte, senza eccezione, non serviranno mai per avvicinare e riconciliare gli uomini e, al contrario, sono state e continuano a essere causa di sofferenze inenarrabili, di stragi, di mostruose violenze fisiche e spirituali che costituiscono uno dei più tenebrosi capitoli della misera storia umana.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: La Repubblica (20 September 2001)
“From literature to ecology, from the escape velocity of galaxies to the greenhouse effect, from garbage disposal methods to traffic jams, everything is discussed in our world. But the democratic system, as if it were a given fact, untouchable by nature until the end of time, we don't discuss that.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intervention in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, February of 1992; quoted in Las leyes antidiscriminatorias en el Mercosur: Impactos de la III conferencia mundial contra el racismo, la discriminación racial, la x…
“A writer is a man like any other: he dreams. And my dream was to be able to say of this book, when I finished: 'This is a book about Alentejo'.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in José Saramago: il bagaglio dello scrittore‎, page 41, by Giulia Lanciani, published by Bulzoni, 1996 , 9788871199337 (256 pages).
“Não é a pornografia que é obscena, é a fome que é obscena”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview Programa Jô Soares, 1997.
“Um dia, sentado à mesa, pensei: E se fôssemos todos cegos? Imediatamente me veio a resposta: Nós somos todos cegos.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the idea for his next novel (Blindness), which came to him while sitting in a restaurant; New York Times interview with Alan Riding (1998), as quoted in Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, 6th Edition (Center for…
“Sometimes I say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. If I can produce a great chair, even better. But above all I have to make sure that it has four stable feet.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Katherine Vaz, José Saramago, BOMB Magazine, June 2001.
“We live in a very peculiar world. Democracy isn't discussed, as if it was taken for granted, as if democracy had taken God's place, who is also not discussed.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Evans, 2002, p. 13, as reported in Fundamentals of action research, Vol. I (2005), p. 305.
“[The Jewish people no longer deserves] sympathy for the suffering it went through during the Holocaust. … Living under the shadows of the Holocaust and willing to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They didn't learn anything from the suffering of their parents and grandparents.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in News Brief, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 15, 2003.
“The human being should be the absolute priority. It seems it is more important to reach the planet Mars than prevent 13 million Africans dying of hunger. Why would I want to know if there is water on Mars if we are polluting the water here on Earth, or doing nothing to avoid it? Priorities need to be redefined, but there is no chance of this, if we don't confront the need to know what democracy is.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in New African (IC Magazines Limited, 2003), p. 25.
“Nossa maior tragédia é não saber o que fazer com a vida.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the opening lecture of the course Literature and power. Lights and shadows, in the University Carlos III in Madrid. As quoted by Marco Aurélio Weissheimer in the article Saramago prega retorno à filosofia para sa…
“Now we live in the empire of oil and money — the rest is disguise.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese), São Paulo, 2005.
“...I'm not able to fear death... We will all turn skeletons and everything shall end. The skeleton becomes, therefore, the most radical form of nudity.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese), São Paulo, 2005.
“Yes [death has become a taboo]. Today people want to avoid the subject and hide the deaths that happen around them. It is as if the world were a hotel where the dead usually disappear at night, without any guest being able to notice their presence. While movies and television address death, they do not touch the fundamental point of finitude. The deaths are false, the good guys get shot and come back to life. It's another way of treating death as unreal.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese), São Paulo, 2005.
“I'm not pessimistic. It is the world that is terrible. How can we be optimistic in the face of a planet where people live so badly, nature is being destroyed and the dominant empire is money?”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese), São Paulo, 2005.
“O universo não tem notícia da nossa existência.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Adelino Gomes, Público, 13 November, 2005.
“Doesn't anybody understand that killing in the name of God only makes Him a murderer?”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Edney Silvestre, 2007.
“If I could repeat my childhood, I would repeat it exactly as it was, with the poverty, the cold, little food, with the flies and pigs, all that.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Edney Silvestre, 2007.
“Globalization is a form of totalitarianism... It is the rich who rule, and the poor live as they can.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Edney Silvestre, 2007.
“I write to try to understand, and because I have nothing better to do.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Efe" report, in Arrecife de Lanzarote (Spain), "Saramago diz que escreve por não ter 'nada melhor para fazer'", published in Folha de São Paulo, 2007.
“We humans are, at bottom, carriers of the time, because we take it with us, we use it, sometimes we waste it and sometimes something remains, though everything is doomed to oblivion.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Efe" report, Folha de São Paulo, 2007.
“Eu, no fundo, não invento nada. Sou apenas alguém que se limita a levantar uma pedra e a pôr à vista o que está por baixo. Não é minha culpa se de vez em quando me saem monstros.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in the article Literatura: Saramago doutor honoris causa da Universidade Autónoma Madrid. Published by Rádio Mirasado. (March 15th, 2007)
“Deep down, the problem is not a God that does not exist, but the religion that proclaims Him. I denounce religions, all religions, as harmful to Humankind. These are harsh words, but one must say them.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview to the newspaper "O Globo" (at the time of the release of his latest book, Cain), in 2009.
“To me, the Bible is a book. Important, no doubt, but a book.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview to the newspaper "O Globo", 2009.
“I think that we do not deserve life, I think that religions have been and continue to be instruments of domination and death.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview to the newspaper "O Globo", 2009.
“There is nothing that is truly free nor democratic enough. Make no mistake, the internet did not come to save the world.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with "O Globo", July 2009.
“I believe that I've been asked all possible questions. I, myself, if I were a journalist, would not know what to ask me.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with "O Globo", July 2009.
“Death is the inventor of God.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with "El País", 2009.
“God, the devil, good, evil, it's all in our heads, not in Heaven or Hell, which we also invented. We do not realize that, having invented God, we immediately became His slaves.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with "El País", 2009.
“There are those who deny me the right to speak of God, because I am not a believer. And I say that I have every right in the world. I want to talk about God because it is a problem that affects all humanity.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with "El País", 2009.
“O pior da morte é que antes estavas e agora não estás.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, O Saramago que conheço, Portal 730, 2010.
“Mas tudo isto pode ser contado doutra maneira.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Além da conversa das mulheres, são os sonhos que seguram o mundo na sua órbita. Mas são também os sonhos que lhe fazem uma coroa de luas, por isso o céu é o resplendor que há dentro da cabeça dos homens, se não é a cabeça dos homens o próprio e único céu.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Voando a máquina, todo o céu será música.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Abençoem-se antes um ao outro, é quanto basta, pudessem ser todas as bênçãos como essa.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Em profunda escuridão se procuraram, nus, sôfrego entrou nela, ela o recebeu ansiosa, depois a sofreguidão dela, a ânsia dele, enfim os corpos encontrados, os movimentos, a voz que vem do ser profundo, aquele que não tem voz, o grito nascido, prolongado, interrompido, o soluço seco, a lágrima inesperada, e a máquina a tremer, a vibrar, porventura não está já na terra, rasgou a cortina de silvas e enleios, pairou no alto da noite, entre as nuvens, pesa o corpo dele sobre o dela, e ambos pesam sobre a terra, afinal estão aqui, foram e voltaram.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Todo o romance é isso, desespero, intento frustrado de que o passado não seja coisa definitivamente perdida. Só não se acabou ainda de averiguar se é o romance que impede o homem de esquecer-se ou se é a impossibilidade do esquecimento que o leva a escrever romances.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O meu problema, nesta situação, é saber se já deveria ter corado antes, ou se é agora que devo corar, Lembro-me de a ter visto corar uma vez, Quando, Quando toquei na rosa que estava no seu gabinete, As mulheres coram mais que os homens, somos o sexo frágil, Ambos os sexos são frágeis, eu também corei, Sabe assim tanto da fragilidade dos sexos, Sei da minha própria fragilidade, e alguma coisa da dos outros.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Orientamo-nos por normas geradas segundo consensos, e domínios, mete-se pelos olhos dentro que variando o domínio varia o consenso, Não deixas saída, Porque não há saída, vivemos num quarto fechados e pintamos o mundo e o universo nas paredes dele.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O filho de José e de Maria nasceu como todos os filhos dos homens, sujo de sangue de sua mãe, viscoso das suas mucosidades e sofrendo em silêncio. Chorou porque o fizeram chorar, e chorará por esse mesmo e único motivo.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Então Jesus voltou lentamente o rosto para ela e disse. Não conheço mulher. Maria segurou-lhe as mãos, Assim temos de começar todos, homens que não conheciam mulher, mulheres que não conheciam homem, um dia o que sabia ensinou, o que não sabia aprendeu.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ninguém na vida teve tantos pecados que mereça morrer duas vezes.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jesus compreendeu que viera trazido ao engano como se leva o cordeiro ao sacrifício, que a sua vida fora traçada para morrer assim desde o princípio dos princípios, e, subindo-lhe à lembrança o rio de sangue e de sofrimento que do seu lado irá nascer e alagar toda a terra, clamou para o céu aberto onde Deus sorria, Homens perdoai-lhe porque ele não sabe o que fez.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To hope, Hope in what, Hope, just hope, one reaches a point where there is nothing but hope, and that is when we discover that hope is everything.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man must read widely, a little of everything or whatever he can, but given the shortness of life and the verbosity of the world, not too much should be demanded of him. Let him begin with those titles no one should omit, commonly referred to as books for learning, as if not all books were for learning, and this list will vary according to the fount of knowledge one drinks from and the authority that monitors its flow.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O destino é a ordem suprema, a que os próprios deuses aspiram, E os homens, que papel vem a ser o dos homens, Perturbar a ordem, corrigir o destino, Para melhor, Para melhor ou para pior, tanto faz, o que é preciso é impedir que o destino seja destino.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The possibility of the impossible, dreams and illusions, are the subject of my novels.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So often we need a whole lifetime in order to change our life, we think a great deal, weigh things up and vacillate, then we go back to the beginning, we think and think, we displace ourselves on the tracks of time with a circular movement, like those clouds of dust, dead leaves, debris, that have no strength for anything more, better by far that we should live in a land of hurricanes.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source