José Saramago Quotes

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.

Within us there is something that has no name, and that is what we really are.

I do not write to please, nor to displease. I write to unsettle.

If literature could change the world, it would have already done so.