--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The other one, the one called Borges, is…" description: "\"“The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanica..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86f/jorge-luis-borges-275_borges_the-other-one-the-one-called-borges-is-t_2267643.jpg" --- # The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things… ![“The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate. I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of…” quote by Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86f/jorge-luis-borges-275_borges_the-other-one-the-one-called-borges-is-t_2267643.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86f/jorge-luis-borges-275_borges_the-other-one-the-one-called-borges-is-t_2267643.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86f/jorge-luis-borges-275_borges_the-other-one-the-one-called-borges-is-t_2267643.jpg) > ““The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate. I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship. I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things. Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone, and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him. I do not know which of us has written this page.”” [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator sees Borges as both a mentor and a rival, merging identity with literature, acknowledging the endless influence of language and tradition. **In simple terms:** Borges shapes the narrator’s sense of self through literature. Key Takeaway Let literature shape you, but retain self. Themes identity literature influence Mood introspective nostalgic Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - academic study - creative writing - personal reflection - literary criticism Key Concepts postmodernism intertextuality Questions to Reflect On - Do you feel literature defines you? - How can you balance influence with originality? A Different Perspective The narrator may lose personal agency to the author’s legacy. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Buenos aires](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/buenos-aires/) [Things happen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/things-happen/) ## Related quotes > [“Oh, Buenos Aires, I have traveled around the world, but I’ve never been separated from you,” said Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges. And Saint…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-jodorowsky/oh-buenos-aires-i-have-traveled-around-the-world-but-i-ve-never-been/) [Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-jodorowsky/) > [“On February 14, I received a telegram from Buenos Aires urging me to return home immediately; my father was "not at all well." God…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/on-february-14-i-received-a-telegram-from-buenos-aires-urging-me-to/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“But I will relate what happened with absolute honesty; that, perhaps, will help me understand it. After all, when one confesses to an act,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/but-i-will-relate-what-happened-with-absolute-honesty-that-perhaps/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“Their books are also different. Works of fiction contain a single plot, with all its imaginable permutations. Those of a philosophical nature invariably include…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/their-books-are-also-different-works-of-fiction-contain-a-single-plot/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [My advanced age has taught me the resignation of being Borges.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/my-advanced-age-has-taught-me-the-resignation-of-being-borges/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“The metaphysicians of Tlön are not looking for truth, nor even for an approximation of it; they are after a kind of amazement.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-metaphysicians-of-tl-n-are-not-looking-for-truth-nor-even-for-an/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“Mirrors in metal, and the masked Mirror of mahogany that in its mist Of a red twilight hazes The face that is gazed on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/mirrors-in-metal-and-the-masked-mirror-of-mahogany-that-in-its-mist/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“The three of them knew it. She was Kafka’s mistress. Kafka had dreamt her. The three of them knew it. He was Kafka’s friend.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-three-of-them-knew-it-she-was-kafka-s-mistress-kafka-had-dreamt/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [ To think, analyze and invent, he \[Pierre Menard\] also wrote me, “are not anomalous acts, but the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glorify… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/to-think-analyze-and-invent-he-pierre-menard-also-wrote-me-are-not/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [I might accept immortality, if I had to do it. But I would prefer - if there is any afterlife - to know nothing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/i-might-accept-immortality-if-i-had-to-do-it-but-i-would-prefer-if/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“It's enough that if I am rich in anything, it is in perplexities rather then in certaintes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/it-s-enough-that-if-i-am-rich-in-anything-it-is-in-perplexities/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“A mí no me gusta que la gente me haga confidencias, porque mientras me dicen cosas importantísimas pienso en otra cosa y tengo miedo…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/a-m-no-me-gusta-que-la-gente-me-haga-confidencias-porque-mientras-me/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“Si me quieren buscar, búsquenme en los libros. No los lean, por favor, si no obtienen placer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/si-me-quieren-buscar-b-squenme-en-los-libros-no-los-lean-por-favor-si/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“One of those days we were in Maria Vostra getting weed; while we were sitting at the bar during some festive day—I think it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tomas-adam-nyapi/one-of-those-days-we-were-in-maria-vostra-getting-weed-while-we-were/) [Tomas Adam Nyapi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tomas-adam-nyapi/) > [I always have my journal with me. It was handmade by a guy at the San Telmo market in Buenos Aires. If you go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/blake-mycoskie/i-always-have-my-journal-with-me-it-was-handmade-by-a-guy-at-the-san/) [Blake Mycoskie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/blake-mycoskie/) ## More by Jorge Luis Borges > [“No hables a menos que puedas mejorar el silencio.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/no-hables-a-menos-que-puedas-mejorar-el-silencio/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-execution-was-set-for-the-29th-of-march-at-nine-in-the-morning/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/like-all-writers-he-measured-the-achievements-of-others-by-what-they/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [How can we manage to illuminate the pathos of our lives?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/how-can-we-manage-to-illuminate-the-pathos-of-our-lives/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Loneliness does not worry me; life is difficult enough, putting up with yourself and with your own habits.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/loneliness-does-not-worry-me-life-is-difficult-enough-putting-up-with/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-fact-is-that-all-writers-create-their-precursors-their-work/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/i-don-t-think-we-re-capable-of-knowledge-but-i-like-to-keep-an-open/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [The web of time - the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect, or ignore each other through the centuries - embraces "every"…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-web-of-time-the-strands-of-which-approach-one-another-bifurcate/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“My memory, sir, is like a garbage disposal.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/my-memory-sir-is-like-a-garbage-disposal/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [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,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/when-i-write-i-do-it-urged-by-an-intimate-necessity-i-don-t-have-in/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [The mind was dreaming. The world was its dream.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/the-mind-was-dreaming-the-world-was-its-dream/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, and soon that only bandits and soldiers will be left.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/i-foresee-that-man-will-resign-himself-each-day-to-new-abominations/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [“If I could live again - I will travel light, If I could live again - I'll try to work bare feet at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/if-i-could-live-again-i-will-travel-light-if-i-could-live-again-i-ll/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Every man should be capable of all ideas.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/every-man-should-be-capable-of-all-ideas/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Writing is only a guided dream.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/writing-is-only-a-guided-dream/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) [Explore all 558 Jorge Luis Borges quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) ## More Borges quotes > [I'm educating myself more about world poetry. I know a lot about contemporary American poetry, so I felt I needed to learn more about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allison-joseph/i-m-educating-myself-more-about-world-poetry-i-know-a-lot-about/) [Allison Joseph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allison-joseph/) > [ \[Jorge Luis Borges\] had short stories, and I was trying to learn how to write short stories, and then he had these things in… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-cisneros/jorge-luis-borges-had-short-stories-and-i-was-trying-to-learn-how-to/) [Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandra-cisneros/) > [ I would say that Edgar Allan Poe, \[Georges\] Perec, Thomas Pynchon, and \[Jorge Luis\] Borges are all boy-writers. These are writers who take... a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-would-say-that-edgar-allan-poe-georges-perec-thomas-pynchon-and/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“As Borges has taught us, all the books in the library are contemporary. Great poems are like granaries: they are always ready to enlarge…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-h-gass/as-borges-has-taught-us-all-the-books-in-the-library-are-contemporary/) [William H. Gass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-h-gass/) > [“Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, it is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/perhaps-as-borges-concludes-in-his-story-it-is-forgetting-not/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“Oh, Buenos Aires, I have traveled around the world, but I’ve never been separated from you,” said Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges. And Saint…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-jodorowsky/oh-buenos-aires-i-have-traveled-around-the-world-but-i-ve-never-been/) [Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-jodorowsky/) > [“Si me quieren buscar, búsquenme en los libros. No los lean, por favor, si no obtienen placer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/si-me-quieren-buscar-b-squenme-en-los-libros-no-los-lean-por-favor-si/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Nazi Literature in the Americas, a wicked invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacey-d-erasmo/nazi-literature-in-the-americas-a-wicked-invented-encyclopedia-of/) Stacey D'Erasmo > [“The hours I spent in this anachronistic, bibliophile, Anglophile retreat were in surreal contrast to the shrieking horror show that was being enacted in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-hours-i-spent-in-this-anachronistic-bibliophile-anglophile/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ “This book first arose out of a passage in \[Jorge Luis\] Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/this-book-first-arose-out-of-a-passage-in-jorge-luis-borges-out-of/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“Sanjala sam da sam J.L.Borges, koji je nekim čudom uskrsnuo, progledao, lupio se dlanom po čelu i brzo pretvorio u - Paula Coelha.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dubravka-ugre-i/sanjala-sam-da-sam-j-l-borges-koji-je-nekim-udom-uskrsnuo-progledao/) [Dubravka Ugrešić](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dubravka-ugre-i/) > [One should read Borges more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roberto-bola-o/one-should-read-borges-more/) [Roberto Bolano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roberto-bola-o/) > [I was an eccentric teenager in suburban New Jersey, in a town mostly interested in sports, popularity, and clothes. A fan of Jorge Luis…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caterina-fake/i-was-an-eccentric-teenager-in-suburban-new-jersey-in-a-town-mostly/) [Caterina Fake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caterina-fake/) > [“Borges is particularly stimulating to a man who works in the cinema, because the unusual thing about his writing is that it is like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/federico-fellini/borges-is-particularly-stimulating-to-a-man-who-works-in-the-cinema/) [Federico Fellini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/federico-fellini/) > [From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/august-wilson/from-borges-those-wonderful-gaucho-stories-from-which-i-learned-that/) [August Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/august-wilson/) Browse all 64 Borges quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate. I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship. I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things. Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone, and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him. 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