“We invent fictions in order to live somehow the many lives we would like to lead when we barely have one at… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
writing fiction is the best thing there is because absolutely everything is possible! — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
In fiction, you are not limited by real facts. You can manipulate reality; you can invent without being disloyal to the essence… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
“Living is worth the effort if only because without life we could not read or imagine stories.” — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
“Because of literature we can decipher, at least partially, the hieroglyphic that existence tends to be for the great majority of human… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Even though what I enjoy most is literature, I would not want to live only in a world of fiction, cut off… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
Men do not live by truth alone; they also need lies: those that they invent freely, not those that are imposed on… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“Why would anyone who is deeply satisfied with reality, with real life as it is lived, dedicate himself to something as insubstantial… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
I think everybody, or the great majority of human beings, have this aspiration to become other: to live a different identity, at least for… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
I learnt to read when I was five, and I think that is the most important thing that happened to me. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Death isn't enough. It doesn't remove the stain. But a slap, a whiplash, square on the face, does. Because a man's face is as… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
The writer’s job is to write with rigor, with commitment, to defend what they believe with all the talent they have. I think that’s… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
The truths that seem most truthful, if you look at them from all sides, if you look at them close up, turn out to… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
That is one thing I am sure of amid my many uncertainties regarding the literary vocation: deep inside, a writer feels that writing is… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Revolution will free society of its afflictions, while science will free the individual of his. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
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 of the… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Each book, for me, has been an adventure, a period of time dedicated to study, to document certain facts, to traveling, and also to… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Reading good literature is an experience of pleasure...but it is also an experience of learning what and how we are, in our human integrity… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
“they knew what we’re doing for them, they’d kiss our feet. But mentally they are closer to the crocodile and the hippopotamus than to… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
Iraq is better without Saddam Hussein than with Saddam Hussein. Without a doubt. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
When I was growing up, the Spanish-speaking world was Balkanized. We were isolated. We didn't know what was happening in cultural terms in Ecuador,… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share
