José Saramago Quotes

I don't believe in God, I don't need it, and besides, I'm a good person.

We are the memory we have and the responsibility we assume. Without memory, we do not exist, and without responsibility, perhaps we do not deserve to exist.

Words are just stones placed across the river's current. If they are there, it is so that we can reach the other bank, the other bank is what matters.

Writers live off the unhappiness of the world. In a happy world, there would be no writers.

Defeat has something positive: it is never final. On the other hand, victory has something negative: it is never final.

I am not worried about death, I will dissolve into nothingness.

Our only defense against death is love.

There are those who deny me the right to speak about God because I do not believe. And I say that I have every right in the world. I want to talk about God because it is a problem that affects all of humanity.

Sincerely, I believe that death is the inventor of God. If we were immortal, we would have no reason to invent a God. For what. We would never know him.

To have is not to possess. One can have that which is not desired. Possession is to have and enjoy what one has.

There are words that retract, that deny themselves, because they hold too much meaning for our ears tired of words.

I have learned not to try to convince anyone. The work of convincing is a lack of respect, it is an attempt to colonize the other.