“Living is worth the effort if only because without life we could not read or imagine stories.” — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Part of the reasons I have lived the life I have is because I wanted to have an adventurous life. But my… — 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 think that literature is something that embraces a much larger experience than politics. It's an expression of what is life, of… — 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
“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
Today, everybody is more or less conscious of the total failure of the Cuban revolution to produce wealth, to produce a better… — 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
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
“My impression is that life—a big word, I know—inflicts themes on a writer through certain experiences that impress themselves on his consciousness… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
I love stories, and my life is principally concentrated on stories, but not with a pretense of scientific precision. — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
“Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
I don't want to finish my life not being alive. I think that is the saddest thing that can happen to a… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
I couldn't imagine any other way of living, outside of books, outside my work. Which doesn't mean I am not interested in… — 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
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
Journalism has been very important for me - for a long time I made my living as a journalist, and it also… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
“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 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
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
