Quotes from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature. I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people’s time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you've already had.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“The adolescents of my generation, greedy for life, forgot in body and soul about their hopes for the future until reality taught them that tomorrow was not what they had dreamed, and they discovered nostalgia.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Morality, too, is a question of time.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“No matter what you do this year or in the next hundred, you will be dead forever.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Just as real events are forgotten, some that never were can be in our memories as if they happened.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“The truth is I'm getting old, I said. We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don't feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“As I kissed her the heat of her body increased, and it exhaled a wild, untamed fragrance.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“I always had understood that dying of love was mere poetic license.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Ah, me, if this is love, then how it torments.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“...the invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy love”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Sex is the consolation you have when you can’t have love.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Siempre pensé que morir de amor solo era una licencia poética.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“And again, as always, after so many years we were still in the same place we always were.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“There's no greater misfortune than dying alone.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“I never had intimate friends, and the few who came close are in New York. By which I mean they're dead, because that's where I suppose condemned souls go in order not to endure the truth of their past lives.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“The only Virgos left in the world are people like you who were born in August.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“I have never done anything except write, but I don't possess the vocation or talents of a narrator, have no knowledge at all of the laws of dramatic composition, and if I have embarked upon this enterprise it is because I trust in the light shed by how much I have read in my life.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Don’t let yourself die without knowing the wonder of fucking with love”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“For a week I did not take off my mechanic's coverall day or night I did not bathe or shave or brush my teeth because love taught me too late that you groom yourself for someone you dress and perfume yourself for someone and I'd never had anyone to do that for.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Descubrí que mi obsesión de que cada cosa estuviera en su puesto, cada asunto en su tiempo, cada palabra en su estilo, no era el premio merecido de una mente en orden, sino al contrario, todo un sistema de simulación inventado por mí para ocultar el desorden de mi naturaleza. Descubrí que no soy disciplinado por virtud, sino como reacción contra mi negligencia; que parezco generoso por encubrir mi mezquindad, que me paso de prudente por mal pensado, que soy conciliador para no sucumbir a mis cóleras reprimidas, que sólo soy puntual para que no se sepa cuan poco me importa el tiempo ajeno. Descubrí, en fin, que el amor no es un estado del alma sino un signo del zodíaco.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“الشهرة امرأة مفرطة في البدانة , لا يستطيع الرجل أن يضاجعها. لكنه يستيقظ من نومه يجدها قبالة السرير تنظر إليه”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“الجنس هو العزاء الذي يلجأ إليه المرء عندما لا يحصل على الحب”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“Blood circulated through her veins with the fluidity of a song that branched off into the most hidden areas of her body and returned to her heart, purified by love. Before I left at dawn I drew the lines of her hand on a piece of paper and gave it to Diva Sahibí for a reading so I could know her soul.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

“This was when I heard that the first symptom of old age is when you begin to resemble your father.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Memories of My Melancholy Whores

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“This one is bigger than the other by at least a quarter,” he said. “That’s perspective,” Will replied stubbornly. “The left one is closer, so it looks bigger.” “If it’s perspective, and it’s that much bigger, your handcart would have to be about five meters wide,” Horace told him. “Is that what you’re planning?” Again, Will studied the drawing critically. “No. I thought maybe two meters. And three meters long.” He quickly sketched in a smaller version of the left wheel, scrubbing over the first attempt as he did so. “Is that better?” “Could be rounder,” Horace said. “You’d never get a wheel that shape to roll. It’s sort of pointy at one end.” Will’s temper flared as he decided his friend was simply being obtuse for the sake of it. He slammed the charcoal down on the table. “Well, you try drawing a perfect circle freehand!” he said angrily. “See how well you do! This is a concept drawing, that’s all. It doesn’t have to be perfect!” Malcolm chose that moment to enter the room. He had been outside, checking on MacHaddish, making sure the general was still securely fastened to the massive log that held him prisoner. He glanced now at the sketch as he passed by the table. “What’s that?” he asked. “It’s a walking cart,” Horace told him. “You get under it, so the spears won’t hit you, and go for a walk.” Will glared at Horace and decided to ignore him. He turned his attention to Malcolm. “Do you think some of your people could build me something like this?” he asked. The healer frowned thoughtfully. “Might be tricky,” he said. “We’ve got a few cart wheels, but they’re all the same size. Did you want this one so much bigger than the other?” Now Will switched his glare to Malcolm. Horace put a hand up to his face to cover the grin that was breaking out there. “It’s perspective. Good artists draw using perspective,” Will said, enunciating very clearly. “Oh. Is it? Well, if you say so.” Malcolm studied the sketch for a few more seconds. “And did you want them this squashed-up shape? Our wheels tend to be sort of round. I don’t think these ones would roll too easily, if at all.” Truth be told, Malcolm had been listening outside the house for several minutes and knew what the two friends had been discussing. Horace gave vent to a huge, indelicate snort that set his nose running. His shoulders were shaking, and Malcolm couldn’t maintain his own straight face any longer. He joined in, and the two of them laughed uncontrollably. Will eyed them coldly. “Oh, yes. Extremely amusing,” he said.”
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