Top 10 Julio Cortázar Quotes

The only true exile is the writer who lives in his own country.

The snail lives the way I like to live; he carries his own home with him.

"Hair loss and retrieval" (Translation of "Pérdida y recuperación del pelo")

Translation: Now it happens that turtles are great speed enthusiasts, which is natural.
The esperanzas know that and don't bother themselves about it.
The famas know it, and make fun of it.
The cronopios know it, and each time they meet a turtle, they haul out the box of colored chalks, and on the rounded blackboard of the turtle's shell they draw a swallow.

Ahora pasa que las tortugas son grandes admiradoras de la velocidad, como es natural. Las esperanzas lo saben, y no se preocupan. Los famas lo saben, y se burlan. Los cronopios lo saben, y cada vez que encuentran una tortuga, sacan la caja de tizas de colores y sobre la redonda pizarra de la tortuga dibujan una golondrina.

Translation: Nothing is lost if one has the courage to proclaim that all is lost and we must begin anew.

Nada está perdido si se tiene el valor de proclamar que todo está perdido y hay que empezar de nuevo.

I touch your mouth, I touch the edge of your mouth with my finger, I am drawing it as if it were something my hand was sketching, as if for the first time your mouth opened a little, and all I have to do is close my eyes to erase it and start all over again, every time I can make the mouth I want appear, the mouth which my hand chooses and sketches on your face, and which by some chance that I do not seek to understand coincides exactly with your mouth which smiles beneath the one my hand is sketching on you.

Translation: We went around without looking for each other, but knowing we went around to find each other.

Andábamos sin buscarnos pero sabiendo que andábamos para encontrarnos.