Julio Cortazar’s phrases are almost always about love, but the Argentine writer is much deeper than that. In fact, he was one of the most groundbreaking Latin American writers of the time, Rayuela (1963) being his most representative work along with others such as Bestiario (1951) or Historias de cronopios y de fames (1962).
Cortazar dominates the short story although he is also a master of novels and prose . His art has overcome the Argentine military regime and the passing of the years, and it is that with the phrases with which we present below it is impossible to remain impassive.
- You can also read: 24 existential questions (deep or dumb).
40 phrases of Julio Cortazar that fall in love
It is not easy to choose the best quotes when all his work is full of memorable words, but we have selected some excerpts that we especially liked. 30 Phrases from Rayuela, by Julio Cortazar
First, we present you the phrases that appear in Hopscotch, an innovative novel that tells the story of a character named Horacio Oliveira. This novel has two peculiarities: it has multiple endings and reading orders and ignores some traditional elements of the novel such as the script. For all these reasons, it is considered an “anti-novel”, although he preferred to call it a “counter-novel”. 1. We walked without looking for each other, but knowing that we were walking to find each other.
Great phrase taken from Hopscotchabout love and destiny . 2. Oh my love, I miss you, my skin hurts, in my throat, every time I breathe it is as if the emptiness enters my chest where you are no longer.
Cortazar left us some heartbreak phrases, although his work does not offer such a romantic vision. 3. But the bad thing about sleep is not sleep. The bad thing is what they call waking up.
And realize that reality is worse. 4. Subtotal: I love you. Grand total: I love you.
One of the author’s most famous phrases, which explains the difference between wanting and loving . 5. Poor love the one who feeds on thought. Love feeds on actions , rather than thought.6. Doesn’t it happen to you that you wake up sometimes with the exact awareness that at that moment an incredible mistake begins?
A rather pessimistic quote, although it has happened to all of us. 7. What many people call love consists of choosing a woman and marrying her. They choose her, I swear, I’ve seen them. As if she could choose herself in love. Love chooses for us , sometimes against our will. 8. It cannot be possible that we are here so as not to be able to be.
An intricate play on words that makes you think. 9. We made love like two musicians who come together to play sonatas.
A phrase that shows that sex, like music, can be an art .10. We loved each other in a dialectic of magnet and filing, attack and defense, ball and wall.
In any couple, some friction is inevitable. 11. Love, ontologizing ceremony, giver of being. Ontology studies being in general and its properties. 12. The scorpion sticking its stinger, tired of being a scorpion but needing its scorpion to kill the scorpion.
Of the most confusing phrases of Hopscotch. In our opinion, he talks about the self-acceptance of being . 13. And if we bite the pain is sweet, and if we drown in a brief and terrible simultaneous suck of breath, that instant death is beautiful.
Le petite mort, as the French say.14. O my heart, do not rise up to testify against me! The betrayal in love , one of the recurring themes in prose and poetry. 15. After forty years, the true face is on the back of the neck, desperately looking back.
With that feeling that any past time was better. 16. Laughter alone has dug more useful tunnels than all the tears on earth.
Another way of saying that laughter builds bridges between people. 17. Music! Melancholic food for those of us who live on love.
Music is another of those constants in Cortazar’s work . 18. How tiring to be yourself all the time.
The easiest thing is to be as others want you to be. 19. Everything always lasts a little longer than it should.
The human being does not have the innate ability to know how to stop in time. 20 The explanation is a well dressed error.
One of Julio Cortazar’s most famous phrases, which appears in the author’s debut feature. 21. Being alive always seems like the price of something.
You have to take advantage of the moments of happiness , an always temporary feeling. 22. Since you didn’t know how to hide it, I immediately realized that to see you the way I wanted it was necessary to start by closing your eyes.
Love is blind, or so they say.23. I am tormented by your love that does not serve as a bridge because a bridge is not supported on one side, neither Wright nor Le Corbusier will ever build a bridge supported on one side. Unrequited love is the worst of loves. With difference. 24. Probably of all our feelings the only one that is not truly ours is hope. Hope belongs to life, it is life itself defending itself.
We have not found a better definition of hope. 25. I don’t give up anything, I just do what I can to make things give up on me.
A somewhat questionable philosophy of life. 26. It was hard to give up believing that a flower can be beautiful for nothing; it was bitter to accept that you can dance in the dark.
This quote is about inevitable loneliness . 27. And what we call loving each other was maybe that I was standing in front of you, with a yellow flower in my hand, and you were holding two green candles, and time blew against our faces a slow rain of resignations and goodbyes and tickets of subway.
A bitter landscape about a love that ends. 28. For you the operation of love is so simple, you will heal before me and that you love me as I do not love you.
The hardest thing to get over in a relationship is the breakup. 29. The reasons for risking the present for the future.
There is always a force that pushes us to fight for a better future, even if we forget to live in the present.30. Memories can only change the less interesting past.
Not surprisingly, memories can be distorted over time.
Phrases from Hopscotch, Cortazar’s most famous work. | Image from: Europa Press. 10 other memorable phrases by Julio Cortazar
Beyond Hopscotch, the Argentine published a series of texts in prose and poetry that made him one of the most original artists. We have also selected some phrases that he pronounced although they do not belong to his work. 31. In reality, the really difficult things are everything that people think they can do at any given moment. (The Pursuer)
Humanity is capable of extraordinary achievements, if it sets its mind to it.32. I think I don’t love you, that I only want the obvious impossibility of loving you as the left hand in love with that glove that lives on the right. (Except the twilight) We are attracted by the difficult and even the impossible. 33. Come to sleep with me: we will not make love, he will make us. (Except for twilight)
Of the most remembered phrases of the writer. 34. Books are the only place in the house where you can still be calm. (The Prizes)
Books can be a good mental shelter from outside noise. 35. What I like about your body is sex. What I like about your sex is your mouth. What I like about your mouth is the tongue. What I like about your language is the word.
The way in which Cortazar establishes the union between sex and words is beautiful. 36. Words are never enough when what needs to be said overflows the soul.
There are things that cannot be explained with words. The author was aware of the limitations of language . 37. Che’s paths are infinite.
Cortazar defined himself as a left-wing character, and for that reason he was censored during the Argentine military dictatorship . 38. I consider, without a doubt, women to be the most beautiful being, because they possess rebellion… and that is what every human being should aspire to.
Unfortunately, women have been forced into rebellion throughout history.39. I am a bourgeoisie blind to everything that happens beyond the sphere of aesthetics.
The Argentine was aware of his privileged situation. 40. It doesn’t matter what I think of Mafalda. The important thing is what Mafalda thinks of me.
One of the few times that she spoke about the work of her compatriot Quino .
- It may interest you: 45 phrases by Paulo Coelho about love and life.
