I confess that I have not cleared a path through all seven hundred pages, I confess to having examined only bits and pieces, and yet I know what it is, with that bold and legitimate certainty with which we assert our knowledge of a city, without ever having been rewarded with the intimacy of all the many streets it includes.
Jorge Luis BorgesAt the beginning of their careers many writers have a need to overwrite. They choose carefully turned-out phrases; they want to impress their readers with their large vocabularies. By the excesses of their language, these young men and women try to hide their sense of inexperience. With maturity the writer becomes more secure in his ideas. He finds his real tone and develops a simple and effective style.
Jorge Luis BorgesHis life, measured in space and time, will take up a mere few lines, which my ignorance will abbreviate further.
Jorge Luis BorgesTranslations are a partial and precious documentation of the changes the text suffers.
Jorge Luis BorgesIn Spanish it is very difficult to make things flow, because words are over-long. But in English, you have light words.
Jorge Luis BorgesWe did meet forty years ago. At that time we were both influenced by Whitman and I said, jokingly in part, 'I don't think anything can be done in Spanish, do you?' Neruda agreed, but we decided it was too late for us to write our verse in English. We'd have to make the best of a second-rate literature.
Jorge Luis Borges