Alejo Carpentier

“The thunder traveled over the ship, from west to east, with prolonged reverberations, before it moved away with its clouds, leaving the…

— Alejo Carpentier

The truth was much more beautiful.

— Alejo Carpentier

“How hard it is to become a man again when one has ceased to be a man." -The Lost Steps”

— Alejo Carpentier

I gladly accepted the commission but was uncertain about what the end result would be. On the one hand, Cuban music was…

— Alejo Carpentier

“Si en estos países se moría por pasiones que me fueran incomprensibles, no por ello era la muerte menos muerte.”

— Alejo Carpentier

“In the quarter where the sun should have appeared, the sky was covered by a strange reddish cloud, like smoke, like hot…

— Alejo Carpentier

A day will come when man will discover an alphabet in the eyes of the chalcedonies, in the marking of the moth,…

— Alejo Carpentier

“But everywhere dark shapes were already melting into the night, seeking asylum in the undergrowth and the jungle. Those not caught in…

— Alejo Carpentier

I had breathed in the atmosphere created by Henri Christophe, the monarch of incredible aims, much more surprising than all the kings…

— Alejo Carpentier

“A day will come when men will discover an alphabet in the eyes of chalcedonies, in the markings of the moth, and…

— Alejo Carpentier

From the beginning, the sensation of the marvelous presupposes faith.

— Alejo Carpentier

In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown…

— Alejo Carpentier

In America everything is fantastical.

— Alejo Carpentier

“I asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways…

— Alejo Carpentier

Those who have always had faith in its final success can do no less than rejoice as if it was our own…

— Alejo Carpentier

The concept of the marvelous begins to take form when it arises from an unexpected alteration of reality, the miracle.

— Alejo Carpentier

Even the pallid daughters of Albion forget for a moment their Pre-Raphaelite poses by burying themselves in the sonorous sortilege of the…

— Alejo Carpentier

I studied harmony and composition in a very spontaneous manner.

— Alejo Carpentier

“Now he understood that a man never knows for whom he suffers and hopes. He suffers and hopes and toils for people…

— Alejo Carpentier

“Now he understood that a man never knows for whom he suffers and hopes. He suffers and hopes and toils for people…

— Alejo Carpentier