For myth is at the beginning of literature, and also at its end. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
The European and the North American consider that a book that has been awarded any kind of prize must be good; the… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“I believe that the phrase ‘obligatory reading’ is a contradiction in terms; reading should not be obligatory. Should we ever speak of… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
At the beginning of their careers many writers have a need to overwrite. They choose carefully turned-out phrases; they want to impress… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Leaving behind the babble of the plaza, I enter the Library. I feel, almost physically, the gravitation of the books, the enveloping… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
As to my writing short pieces, there are two reasons I can give you. The first is my invincible laziness. The second… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“Their books are also different. Works of fiction contain a single plot, with all its imaginable permutations. Those of a philosophical nature… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
In the order of literature, as in others, there is no act that is not the coronation of an infinite series of… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“Before unearthing this letter, I had questioned myself about the ways in which a book can be infinite. I could think of… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“Emerson said that a library is a magic chamber in which there are many enchanted spirits. They wake when we call them.… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“Let no one reduce to tears or reproach This statement of the mastery of God, Who, with magnificent irony, gave Me at… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Imprecision is tolerable and verisimilar in literature, because we always tend towards it in life. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
If a writer disbelieves what he is writing, then he can hardly expect his reader to believe it. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms. I know of districts in which the young… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
The gods weave misfortunes for men, so that the generations to come will have something to sing about.” Mallarmé repeats, less beautifully,… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
“So witless did these ideas strike me as being, so sweeping and pompous the way they were expressed, that I associated them… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Im merely a dreamer, and then a writer, and my happiest moments are when I'm a reader. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
My father gave me free run of his library. When I think of my boyhood, I think in terms of the books… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
Loneliness does not worry me; life is difficult enough, putting up with yourself and with your own habits. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
I don't think we're capable of knowledge, but I like to keep an open mind. So if you ask me whether I believe in… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
The web of time - the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect, or ignore each other through the centuries - embraces "every"… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
When I write, I do it urged by an intimate necessity. I don't have in mind an exclusive public, or a public of multitudes,… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, and soon that only bandits and soldiers will be left. — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
