Thus they went on living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words, but which would escape irremediably when they forgot the values of the written letters.

Aureliano not only understood by then, he also lived his brother’s experiences as something of his own, for on one occasion when the latter was explaining in great detail the mechanism of love, he interrupted him to ask: “What does it feel like?” José Arcadio gave an immediate reply: “It’s like an earthquake.

Morality, too, is a question of time.

The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.

Surrealism comes from the reality of Latin America.

Why were you so old when we met? I answered with the truth: Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.

If you're going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones... After all, there are better ways to starve to death.