Javier Marías (20 September 1951 – 11 September 2022) was a Spanish novelist, translator, and columnist. He is one of Spain's most celebrated novelists, and his work has been translated into 42 languages.
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La noche pertenece al día anterior en nuestro sentimiento.
...al mantener el brazo en alto me permitió contemplar su axila, y cuando una mujer desnuda permite ver eso, y descubre una o ambas, es como si ofreciera un suplemento de desnudez con ello.
Never dismiss ideas born of the imagination, Jack, you only get to them after much thought, much reflection and study, and considerable boldness.
...and what gets me out of bed in the mornings continues to be the expectation of what might happen, all unannounced. I'm always expecting the unexpected, and I still fantasise about what might still be.
However dead a past love may be, new lovers are much...upset by them.
La gente sólo se casa cuando no tiene más remedio, por pánico o porque anda desesperada o para no perder a alguien a quien no soporta perder. Siempre hay mucha chaladura en lo que parece más convencional.
La verdadera unidad de los matrimonios y aun de las parejas la traen las palabras, más que las palabras dichas—dichas voluntariamente—, las palabras que no se callan—que no se callan sin que nuestra voluntad intervenga—.
He had an ability to surprise, as does every major idiot, and, of course, to irritate, all in the space of a single second.
We always condemn ourselves by what we say, not by what we do.
...possessed of more self-knowledge, which is the kind of knowledge that makes people attractive.
Every illness is caused by something which is not an illness.
A fool with the mind of a detective is an intelligent fool, a logical fool, the worst kind, because men's logic, far from compensating for their foolishness, only duplicates it, triplicates it, makes it dangerous.
This is just a stopping-off point for me but I'll be stopping long enough to make it worth my while finding what people call 'someone to love'.
El que aquí cuenta lo que vio y le ocurrió no es aquel que lo vio y al que le ocurrió.
Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous.