The American mirror, said the voice, the sad American mirror of wealth and poverty and constant useless metamorphosis, the mirror that sails and whose sails are pain.
Roberto BolanoI steal into their dreams," he said. "I steal into their most shameful thoughts, I'm in every shiver, every spasm of their souls, I steal into their hearts, I scrutinize their most fundamental beliefs, I scan their irrational impulses, their unspeakable emotions, I sleep in their lungs during the summer and their muscles during the winter, and all of this I do without the least effort, without intending to, without asking or seeking it out, without constraints, driven only by love and devotion.
Roberto BolanoIโm seventeen years old, my name is Juan Garcรญa Madero, and Iโm in my first semester of law school. I wanted to study literature, not law, but my uncle insisted, and in the end I gave in. Iโm an orphan, and someday Iโll be a lawyer. Thatโs what I told my aunt and uncle, and then I shut myself in my room and cried all night.
Roberto BolanoDrink up, boys, drink up and donโt worry, if we finish this bottle weโll go down and buy another one. Of course, it wonโt be the same as the one weโve got now, but itโll still be better than nothing. Ah, what a shame they donโt make Los Suicidas mezcal anymore, what a shame that time pases, donโt you think? what a shame that we die, and get old, and everything good goes galloping away from us.
Roberto BolanoOf all the islands he'd visited, two stood out. The island of the past, he said, where the only time was past time and the inhabitants were bored and more or less happy, but where the weight of illusion was so great that the island sank a little deeper into the river every day. And the island of the future, where the only time was the future, and the inhabitants were planners and strivers, such strivers, said Ulises, that they were likely to end up devouring one another.
Roberto Bolano