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Jose Saramago Quotes
Jose Saramago Quotes
Jose Saramago
Portuguese
Writer
Born:
Nov 16
,
1922
Died:
Jun 18
,
2010
Am
Life
People
Will
Work
World
Related authors:
Ayn Rand
Dr. Seuss
H. L. Mencken
Napoleon Hill
Niccolo Machiavelli
Thomas Mann
Thomas Paine
Voltaire
As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.
Jose Saramago
Obligation
Citizen
Become
Changes
Intervene
Citizens
Involved
Who
Things
Americans have discovered the fragility of life, that ominous fragility that the rest of the world either already experienced or is experiencing now with terrible intensity.
Jose Saramago
Life
World
Rest
Ominous
Terrible
Discovered
American
Intensity
Experienced
Experiencing
Either
Now
Fragility
The problem is that the right doesn't need any ideas to govern, but the left can't govern without ideas.
Jose Saramago
Problem
Ideas
Without
Govern
Left
Any
Right
Need
Beginning with adolescence, my political formation was oriented in the ideological direction of Marxism. It was natural, being that my thinking was influenced by an atmosphere of active critical resistance. That was the way it was during all of the dictatorship and up to the Revolution of 1974.
Jose Saramago
Natural
Political
Dictatorship
Beginning
Revolution
Active
Thinking
Way
Critical
Atmosphere
Adolescence
Direction
Marxism
Ideological
Up
Being
Influenced
Formation
Oriented
Resistance
To continue living, we have to die. That's the story of humanity - generation after generation - that we are going to die. There's nothing dramatic about death except that one loses one's life.
Jose Saramago
Life
Death
Generation
Humanity
Nothing
Living
Dramatic
About
Except
Continue
Loses
Die
Going
After
Story
I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are.
Jose Saramago
Positive
Heroes
Exhausted
Doubt
Way
More
Uncertainty
Never
Raw
Raw Material
Almost
Until
Cliches
Because
Always
Material
Provides
Perplexity
Model
Just
Just Because
Literary
Literature
Prefer
Really
Productive
Copies
Humans
Appreciated
The period that I could consider the most important in my literary work came about beginning with the Revolution, and in a certain way, developed as a consequence of the Revolution. But it was also a result of the counterrevolutionary coup of November 1975.
Jose Saramago
Work
Result
November
Important
Beginning
Revolution
Consider
Way
About
Could
Developed
Most
Coup
Period
Also
Came
The Most Important
Literary
Literary Work
Certain
Certain Way
Consequence
There are plenty of reasons not to put up with the world as it is.
Jose Saramago
World
Plenty
Put
Up
Reasons
I think the novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers. The novel receives streams of science, philosophy, poetry and contains all of these; it's not simply telling a story.
Jose Saramago
Science
Space
Think
Philosophy
Telling
Poetry
Rivers
Simply
Contains
Like
Genre
Literary
Story
Much
Sea
Many
Novel
Filled
Streams
Receives
Society has to change, but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.
Jose Saramago
Change
Political
Society
Enough
System
Would
Democratic
Powers
Effect
Moment
Whole
It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people.
Jose Saramago
People
Will
Difficult
Take
Part
Democratically
Accepting
Understand
Referendum
Then
Incapable
Elections
Who
I always ask two questions: How many countries have military bases in the United States? And in how many countries does the United States not have military bases?
Jose Saramago
Military
States
Countries
Does
Always
How
Questions
Ask
Military Bases
Many
United
United States
Bases
Two
I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.
Jose Saramago
Secret
Write
Perhaps
Am
Just
The attitude of insolent haughtiness is characteristic of the relationships Americans form with what is alien to them, with others.
Jose Saramago
Attitude
Alien
Others
Relationships
Characteristic
Insolent
American
Form
Them
I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.
Jose Saramago
Work
Travel
Degree
Destinations
Able
More
Select
Write
Am
According
Order
Less
Usefulness
Traveling
I am the same person I was before receiving the Nobel Prize. I work with the same regularity, I have not modified my habits, I have the same friends.
Jose Saramago
Work
Before
Habits
Nobel
Nobel Prize
Am
Friends
Prize
Person
Same
Modified
Regularity
Receiving
I am a person with leftist convictions, and always have been.
Jose Saramago
Convictions
Always
Am
Been
Leftist
Person
Can you imagine what Bush would say if someone like Hugo Chavez asked him for a little piece of land to install a military base, and he only wanted to plant a Venezuelan flag there?
Jose Saramago
You
Plant
Military
Say
Would
Someone
Only
Install
Chavez
He
Like
Piece
Him
Flag
Hugo
Wanted
Little
Bush
Land
Asked
Little Piece
Base
Imagine
Americans have discovered fear.
Jose Saramago
Fear
Discovered
American
Abstention means you stayed at home or went to the beach. By casting a blank vote, you're saying you have a political conscience but you don't agree with any of the existing parties.
Jose Saramago
Saying
Home
You
Vote
Political
Stayed
Beach
Casting
Blank
Parties
Existing
Any
Means
Agree
Conscience
In the end we discover the only condition for living is to die.
Jose Saramago
Living
Only
Discover
Condition
End
Die
In The End
There are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.
Jose Saramago
Best
Lose
Everything
Content
Times
Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt.
Jose Saramago
Will
Everything
Recognizing
Vocabulary
Never
Knowing
Felt
Still
Human
Experienced
Capable
Communicating
Being fired was the best luck of my life. It made me stop and reflect. It was the birth of my life as a writer.
Jose Saramago
Life
Best
Me
Made
My Life
Reflect
Luck
Birth
Fired
Writer
Stop
Being
Though I had come into the world on 16 November 1922, my official documents show that I was born two days later, on the 18th. It was thanks to this petty fraud that my family escaped from paying the fine for not having registered my birth at the proper legal time.
Jose Saramago
Time
Family
Legal
World
November
Thanks
Petty
Birth
Later
Though
Fraud
Fine
Born
Proper
Having
Had
Days
Come
Documents
Escaped
Official
Registered
Show
Paying
Two
I was a good pupil at primary school: in the second class I was writing with no spelling mistakes, and the third and fourth classes were done in a single year.
Jose Saramago
Good
Class
Writing
School
Mistakes
Single
Year
Spelling
Pupil
Classes
Primary
Primary School
Were
Done
Second
Fourth
Third
Second-Class
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