Augusto Roa Bastos

“The things that have come into being change continually. The man with a good memory remembers nothing because he forgets nothing.”

“Anyone who attempts to relate his life loses himself in the immediate. One can only speak of another.”

“The great principle of Justice: prevent crime rather than punish it. All that is needed to execute a guilty man is a firing squad or a hangman. To prevent there being guilty men requires great astuteness.”

“It is not by believing but by doubting that one can attain to the truth, which is ever changing form and condition.”

“Letters couldn't care less whether what is written with them is true or false.”

“The dictionary is an ossuary of empty words.”

“To write does not mean to convert the real into words but to make the power of the word real.”

“In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.”

“Forms disappear, words remain, to signify the impossible.”

“What happens is that your wretched memory remembers the words and forgets what's behind them.”