Juan Gabriel Vásquez

“Experience, or what we call experience, is not the inventory of our pains, but rather the learned sympathy towards the pain of others.”

“There is no more disastrous mania, no more dangerous whim, than the speculation over roads not taken.”

“What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.”

“Where does the past go when it changes?”

“The world's a scary place these days. Grandpa,, you've seen worse things, haven't you? Please tell me the world has always been like this.”

“The saddest thing that can happen to a person is to find out their memories are lies.”

“Remembering tires a person out. this is something they don't teach us. Exercising one's memory is an exhausting activity. It draws our energy and wears down our muscles.”

“...the nostalgia for things that weren't yet lost.”