A writer is a man like any other: he dreams. And my dream was to be able to say of this book, when I finished: 'This is a book about Alentejo.'

The virtue of maps, they show what can be done with limited space, they foresee that everything can happen therein.

This is the effect of panic, a natural effect, you could say that animal nature is like this, plant life would behave in exactly the same way, too, if it did not have all those roots to hold it in the ground, and how nice it would be to see the trees of the forest fleeing the flames.

It is not pornography that is obscene, it is hunger that is obscene.

Death is the inventor of God.

We never consider that the things dogs know about us are things of which we have not the faintest notion.

...you have to leave the island in order to see the island, that we can't see ourselves unless we become free of ourselves, Unless we escape from ourselves you mean, No, that's not the same thing.