Books Quotes by Mario Vargas Llosa

I would like my novels to be read the way I read the novels I love.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

It is rare and almost impossible for a novel to have only one narrator.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Good literature is absolutely necessary for a society that wants to be free.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

A novel which persuades us of its truth is true however full of lies it may be

— Mario Vargas Llosa

A novel is something, while despair is nothing.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Literature is dangerous: it awakens a rebellious attitude in us.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I learnt to read when I was five, and I think that is the most important thing that happened to me.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Literature is a form of permanent insurrection. Its mission is to arouse, to disturb, to alarm, to keep men in a constant…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

If you live in a country where there is nothing comparable to free information, often literature becomes the only way to be…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Faulkner was the first novelist I read with pen and paper in hand because his technique stunned me.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Reading was such an enrichment of my life. And it was that pleasure that I had as a very young reader probably…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I think that literature has the important effect of creating free, independent, critical citizens who cannot be manipulated.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. You can't imagine the pressure to give…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

There are many things behind a good novel, but in particular there is a lot of work - a lot of patience,…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Once upon a time, there was a boy who learned to read at the age of 5. This changed his life. Owing…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

In general, a writer would like to think that the best book that he has written is the book that he is…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Sartre said that wars were acts and that, with literature, you could produce changes in history. Now, I don't think literature doesn't…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I completely believe that - literature for me is a way of life. That's probably true of all writers or all artists.…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I was absolutely convinced that I wouldn't win the Nobel Prize. My impression was that the Nobel Prize in Literature was given…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Reading good literature is an experience of pleasure...but it is also an experience of learning what and how we are, in our…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Good novel is a conjunction of many factors, the main of which is, without a doubt, hard work. There are many things…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I always write a draft version of the novel in which I try to develop, not the story, not the plot, but…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

“Fictions exist because of this fact. Because we have only one life, and our desires and fantasies demand a thousand lives. Because…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

This fact was something I also learned from this first novel that I needed personal experience to invent, to fantasize, to create…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

“We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

“From the cave to the skyscraper, from the club to weapons of mass destruction, from the tautological life of the tribe to…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

“At times I wondered whether writing was not a solipsistic luxury in countries like mine, where there were scant readers, so many…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

“It is the case that, albeit to a lesser extent, all fictions make their readers live "the impossible", taking them out of…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I don't accept the idea that literature can be just entertainment and that there is no consequences of literature in the real…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

I think if you're impregnated with good literature, with good culture, you're much more difficult to manipulate, and you're much more aware…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

When I was young, when I started to write, we were totally convinced that literature was a kind of weapon.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

The novels that have fascinated me most are the ones that have reached me less through the channels of the intellect or…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your…

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa)

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Good literature always ends up showing those who read it... the inevitable limitation of all power to fulfill human aspirations and desires.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

A good novel is a conjunction of many factors, the main of which is without a doubt, hard work.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Each book, for me, has been an adventure, a period of time dedicated to study, to document certain facts, to traveling, and…

— Mario Vargas Llosa