Quotes from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Perdiste tu inocencia en el mundo de afuera. No podrás recuperarla aquí adentro, en el mundo de los afectos. Quizá tuviste tu jardín. Yo también tuve el mío, mi pequeño paraíso. Ahora ambos lo hemos perdido. Trata de recordar. No puedes encontrar en mí lo que ya sacrificaste, lo que ya perdiste para siempre y por tu propia obra. No sé de dónde vienes. No sé qué has hecho. Sólo sé que en tu vida perdiste lo que después me hiciste perder a mí: el sueño, la inocencia. Ya nunca seremos los mismos.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Tú y yo, miembros de esa masonería: la orden de la chingada. Eres quien eres porque supiste chingar y no te dejaste chingar; eres quien eres porque no supiste chingar y te dejaste chingar: cadena de la chingada que nos aprisiona a todos...”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“¿Morirás? No será la primera vez. Habrás vivido tanta vida muerta, tantos momentos de mera gesticulación”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Artemio Cruz...nombre..."inútil"..."corazón"..."masaje"..."inutil"...ya no sabrás...te traje adentro y moriré contigo...los tres...moriremos...Tú...mueres..has muerto...moriré”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“¿A poco no somos los meros chingones? ¿Sabes? Escoge siempre a tus amigos entre los grandes chingones, porque con ellos no hay quien te chingue a ti.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Quiza fue pudor. Quiza unas ganas de que este amor a oscuras fuese, de verdad, excepcional.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Vivir es traicionar a tu Dios; cada acto de la vida, cada acto que nos afirma como seres vivos, exige que se violen los mandamientos de tu Dios”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Tu valor será gemelo de tu cobardía, tu odio habrá nacido de tu amor, toda tu vida habrá contenido y prometido tu muerte; que no habrás sido bueno ni malo, generoso ni egoísta, entero ni traidor. Dejarás que todos los demás afirmen tus cualidades y tus defectos; pero tu mismo, ¿cómo podrás negar que cada una de tus afirmaciones se negará, que cada una de tus negaciones se afirmará?”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“-Esé es el drama. No hay más que ellos. No sé si te acuerdas del principio. Fue hace tan poco, pero parece tan lejano...cuando no importaban los jefes. Cuando esta se hacía no para elevar a un hombre, sino a todos”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“-Quisiera recordarte de pequeño. Te quise entonces, porque en la juventud una madre debe querer a todos sus hijos. De viejos sabemos mejor. No hay por qué querer a nadie sin razón. La sangre natural no es una razón. La única razón es la sangre amada sin razón.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Однажды утром ты встанешь — Я заставляю тебя вспоминать, — встанешь, посмотришь в зеркало и увидишь наконец, что кое-что осталось позади. Ты припомнишь этот первый день наступившей старости, первый день нового времени — отметь его. И ты отметишь, окаменев, как статуя, и отныне по-новому глядя на все вокруг себя.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Regina de la mirada soñadora y encendida.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“pesa de un lado mis culpas y del otro mi amor y verás que mi amor es más grande…”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“He thought that even naturalness can be feigned; at times, a mask disguises too well the expressions of a face that does not exist either outside or under it.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Pensarás que has hecho tantas cosas cobardes que el valor te resulta fácil.”
― Carlos Fuentes, quote from The Death of Artemio Cruz

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Popular quotes

“The officers entered the Clinic with Noda. Passing through the mouth-like lobby, they proceeded along endlessly winding corridors and stairways lit only by red night lights, like a journey through the innards of a body, before at last finding themselves on the fourth floor. Yamaji’s research had already told them that Inui lived on the fourth floor, but it would have been too dangerous to use the elevator. Elevators commonly appear in dreams as symbols of sexual desires. As such, they thought it highly probable that the elevator would be used for an attack from the subconscious.”
― Yasutaka Tsutsui, quote from Paprika

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― Arthur Rimbaud, quote from A Season in Hell

“This is an existential crisis rooted not only in race—which the corner has slowly transcended—but in the unresolved disaster of the American rust-belt, in the slow, seismic shift that is shutting down the assembly lines, devaluing physical labor, and undercutting the union pay scale. Down on the corner, some of the walking wounded used to make steel, but Sparrows Point isn’t hiring the way it once did. And some used to load the container ships at Seagirt and Locust Point, but the port isn’t what she used to be either. Others worked at Koppers, American Standard, or Armco, but those plants are gone now. All of which means precious little to anyone thriving in the postindustrial age. For those of us riding the wave, the world spins on an axis of technological prowess in an orbit of ever-expanding information. In that world, the men and women of the corner are almost incomprehensibly useless and have been so for more than a decade now. How”
― David Simon, quote from The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

“We circled around and came in from the northwest.” I lifted my wrist to show him the compass on my watch band, although I hoped that, being the pilot, he knew we’d approached from the northwest. “I was looking out the window. I saw a woman running down the street. There was a pack of dogs after her and a guy with a switchblade down the street in the direction she was running.”
“Ma’am,” he said, still very patiently. I reached out and took a fistful of his shirt. Actually, at the last moment, I grabbed the air in front of his shirt. I didn’t think security could throw me out of the airport for grabbing air in a threatening fashion, not even in this post-9/11 age.
“Don’t ma’am me . . .”
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“When on the very edge of death, matters such as fortune and legacy are meaningless in the face of knowing that someone who cares for you will hold your hand as you slip away.”
― Morgan Rhodes, quote from Crystal Storm

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.