--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It was time to begin making notes on how…" description: "\"“It was time to begin making notes on how the search was going, the people he had met, the conversations he had had, his thoughts, his plans and tactic..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg" --- # It was time to begin making notes on how the search was… ![“It was time to begin making notes on how the search was going, the people he had met, the conversations he had had, his thoughts, his plans and tactics for an investigation that promised to be complex, The steps taken by someone in search of someone else, he thought, and the truth is, that…” quote by José Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg) > ““It was time to begin making notes on how the search was going, the people he had met, the conversations he had had, his thoughts, his plans and tactics for an investigation that promised to be complex, The steps taken by someone in search of someone else, he thought, and the truth is, that although the process was only in its early stages, he already had a lot to say, If this were a novel, he murmured as he opened the notebook, the conversation with the lady in the ground-floor apartment would be a chapter in itself. He picked up a pen to begin but stopped halfway, his eyes caught the paper on which he had written down the addresses, there was something he hadn’t considered before the perfectly plausible hypothesis that the unknown woman, after she got divorced, had gone to live with her parents, the equally possible hypothesis that her husband had left the apartment, leaving the telephone in his name. If that was so, and bearing in mind that the street in question was near the Central Registry, the woman on the bus might well have been the same one. The inner dialogue seemed to want to start up again, It was, It wasn’t, It was, It wasn’t, but this time, Senhor José paid no heed to it and, bending over the notebook, he began to write the first words, Thus, I went into the building, went up the stairs to the second floor and listened at the door of the apartment where the unknown woman was born, then I heard a little baby crying, it could be her child I thought, and, at the same time, I heard a woman crooning to it softly, It must be her, later, I found out that it wasn’t.”” [José Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A detective narrates his investigative process, noting observations, hypotheses, and unexpected outcomes while confronting uncertainty. **In simple terms:** A detective records clues, forms theories, and faces surprising twists. Key Takeaway Document observations, stay flexible, and adapt when new evidence appears. Themes investigation uncertainty observation hypothesis adaptation Mood curious tense reflective Type literary detective philosophical When to use this quote - crime scene analysis - interviewing witnesses - writing field notes - re-evaluating leads Key Concepts narrative cognitive bias probabilistic reasoning Questions to Reflect On - How do personal biases affect investigative conclusions? - When should a detective trust intuition over data? 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It’s square, bound paper…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sherrilyn-kenyon/they-didn-t-have-novels-back-then-tory-history-says-they-didn-t-have/) [Sherrilyn Kenyon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sherrilyn-kenyon/) > [The women's movement was coming, but I didn't know it in 1956-1957, when I began to write.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/grace-paley/the-women-s-movement-was-coming-but-i-didn-t-know-it-in-1956-1957/) [Grace Paley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/grace-paley/) ## More by José Saramago > [“We are born, and at that moment, it is as if we had signed a pact for the rest of our life, but a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/we-are-born-and-at-that-moment-it-is-as-if-we-had-signed-a-pact-for/) [José Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [It takes little or nothing to undo reputations, the merest trifle makes and remakes them, it is simply a question of finding the best…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/it-takes-little-or-nothing-to-undo-reputations-the-merest-trifle/) [Jose Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [One can show no greater respect than to weep for a stranger.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/one-can-show-no-greater-respect-than-to-weep-for-a-stranger/) [Jose Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [I am not a prophet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/i-am-not-a-prophet/) [Jose Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [With the passage of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the color of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/with-the-passage-of-time-as-well-as-the-social-evolution-and-genetic/) [Jose Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [“Al día siguiente no murió nadie.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/al-d-a-siguiente-no-muri-nadie/) [José Saramago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/) > [“E se as histórias para crianças passassem a ser de leitura obrigatória para os adultos? 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He picked up a pen to begin but stopped halfway, his eyes caught the paper on which he had written down the addresses, there was something he hadn’t considered before the perfectly plausible hypothesis that the unknown woman, after she got divorced, had gone to live with her parents, the equally possible hypothesis that her husband had left the apartment, leaving the telephone in his name. If that was so, and bearing in mind that the street in question was near the Central Registry, the woman on the bus might well have been the same one. The inner dialogue seemed to want to start up again, It was, It wasn’t, It was, It wasn’t, but this time, Senhor José paid no heed to it and, bending over the notebook, he began to write the first words, Thus, I went into the building, went up the stairs to the second floor and listened at the door of the apartment where the unknown woman was born, then I heard a little baby crying, it could be her child I thought, and, at the same time, I heard a woman crooning to it softly, It must be her, later, I found out that it wasn’t.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "José Saramago" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how-the-search-was-going-the/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Time" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how-the-search-was-going-the/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4d/jos-saramago-208_time_it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how_2789431.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It was time to begin making notes on how the search was going, the people he had met, the conversations he…” — José Saramago", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "José Saramago", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-saramago/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“It was time to begin making...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how-the-search-was-going-the/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-saramago/it-was-time-to-begin-making-notes-on-how-the-search-was-going-the/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```