. . . if there is a way for the world to be transformed for the better, it can only be done by pessimism; optimists will never change the world for the better.
Jose SaramagoThe possibility of the impossible, dreams and illusions, are the subject of my novels.
Jose SaramagoYet human experience and the practice of communication have shown throughout the ages that definitions are an illusion, like having a speech defect and trying to say love but unable to get the word out, or, better, having a tongue in one's head but unable to feel love.
Jose SaramagoWords are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that can not bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armor, we might say.
Jose Saramago