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 Copy Share Image
“This way of 'choosing to be an an artist' seems lost for ever to today's impatient and cynical youth, who dream of… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
The worst thing that can happen to an artist is to be subsidized by the state. It leads to an intellectual and… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Latin America seemed to be a land where there were only dictators, revolutionaries, catastrophes. Now we know that Latin America can produce… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Eroticism is born at a time in civilisation when sexual instinct becomes deanimalised and enriched with contributions from art and from literature.… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa) — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Reality is the richest thing there is, the most important thing there is. Our imagination allows us to live an artificial life… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
To write is a relief from life's problems. It is a way in which you revenge yourself. In art, the writer achieves… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
I remember, when I was young, to have a literary or artistic vocation was really dramatic because you were so isolated from… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Revolution will free society of its afflictions, while science will free the individual of his. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
