Mario Vargas Llosa
Seríamos peores de lo que somos sin los buenos libros que leímos, más conformistas, menos insumisos y el espíritu crítico, motor del progreso, ni siquiera existiría.Como escribir, leer es una protesta contra las insuficiencias de la vida. Cuando buscamos en la ficción lo que falta en la vida, estamos diciendo, sin necesidad de decirlo o incluso de saberlo, que la vida tal como es no satisface nuestra sed de lo absoluto, el fundamento de la condición humana, y debería ser mejor. Inventamos ficciones para vivir de alguna manera las muchas vidas que nos gustaría llevar cuando apenas tenemos una a nuestra disposición" |
“We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist. Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better. We invent fictions in order to live somehow the many lives we would like to lead when we barely have one at our disposal.” |
Mario Vargas Llosa The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 Born: 28 March 1936, Arequipa, Peru Residence at time of award: Peru Prize motivation: "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." Language: Spanish |
Octavio Paz
óyeme como quien oye llover, |
“listen to me as one listens to the rain, |
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1990 Born: 31 March 1914, Mexico City, Mexico Died: 19 April 1998, Mexico City, Mexico Residence at the time of the award: Mexico Prize motivation: "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity." Language: Spanish |
Camilo José Cela
“En la pendiente más difícil de la colina, dos pequeños cabreros están cuidando una bandada de cabras; uno de ellos está sentado en una roca que saca cenizas de un cayado, mientras que el otro está tratando de sacar algunos tuits de una flauta de caña ”. |
“On the hinder slope of the hill two little goatherds are tending a flock of goats; one of them is sitting on a rock whittling a crook out of ash, while the other is trying to coax a few tweets out of a reed flute.” |
Camilo José Cela
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1989 Born: 11 May 1916, Iria Flavia, Spain Died: 17 January 2002, Madrid, Spain Residence at the time of the award: Spain Prize motivation: "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability." Language: Spanish |
Gabriel García Márquez
“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1982 Born: 6 March 1927, Aracataca, Colombia Died: 17 April 2014, Mexico City, Mexico Residence at the time of the award: Mexico Prize motivation: "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts." Language: Spanish |
Pablo Neruda
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
Pablo Neruda
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 Born: 12 July 1904, Parral, Chile Died: 23 September 1973, Santiago, Chile Residence at the time of the award: Chile Prize motivation: "for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams." Language: Spanish |
Miguel Angel Asturias
“Rise and demand; you are a burning flame.
You are sure to conquer there where the final horizon
Becomes a drop of blood, a drop of life,
Where you will carry the universe on your shoulders,
Where the universe will bear your hope.”
― Miguel Angel Asturias
Miguel Angel Asturias
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1967 Born: 19 October 1899, Guatemala City, Guatemala Died: 9 June 1974, Madrid, Spain Residence at the time of the award: Guatemala Prize motivation: "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America." Language: Spanish |
Juan Ramón Jiménez
“Life. This morning the sun made me adore it. It had, behind the dripping pine trees, the oriental brightness, orange and crimson, of a living being, a rose and an apple, in the physical and ideal fusion of a true and daily paradise.”
― Juan Ramón Jiménez, Time and Space: A Poetic Autobiography
Juan Ramón Jiménez
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1956 was awarded to Juan Ramón Jiménez "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity." (domiciled in Puerto Rico, USA |
Gabriela Mistral
“We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow,’ his name is today.”
― Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1945 Born: 7 April 1889, Vicuña, Chile Died: 10 January 1957, Hempstead, NY, USA Residence at the time of the award: Chile Prize motivation: "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world." Language: Spanish |
Jacinto Benavente
Everyone thinks that having a talent is a matter of luck; no one thinks that luck could be a matter of talent.
Jacinto Benavente
Jacinto Benavente
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1922 Born: 12 August 1866, Madrid, Spain Died: 14 July 1954, Madrid, Spain Residence at the time of the award: Spain Prize motivation: "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama." Language: Spanish |
Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre
Ernesto: Let Julian say what he likes, I am not going to give up my undertaking. It would be rank cowardice. No, I will not retreat. Forward! Night, lend me your protection, for against your blackness the luminous outlines of my inspiration are defined more clearly than against the blue cloak of day. "
From the Great Galateo
Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre
José Echegaray y Eizaguirre
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1904 Born: 19 April 1832, Madrid, Spain Died: 4 September 1916, Madrid, Spain Residence at the time of the award: Spain Prize motivation: "in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama." Language: Spanish |