Clarice Lispector

Brazil
10 Dec 1920 // 9 Dec 1977
Writer

Quotes



I cannot stand repetition: routine divides me from potential novelties within my reach.

The Hour of the Star
To eat communion bread will be to taste the world's indifference, and to immerse myself in nothingness.

The Hour of the Star
Meanwhile, the clouds are white and the sky is blue. Why is there so much God? At the expense of men.

The Hour of the Star
I ask myself: is every story that has ever been written in this world, a story of suffering and affliction?

The Hour of the Star
No it is not easy to write. It is as hard as breaking rocks. Sparks and splinters fly like shattered steel.

The Hour of the Star
She believed in angels, and, because she believed, they existed.

The Hour of the Star
Things were somehow so good that they were in danger of becoming very bad because what is fully mature is very close to rotting.

The Hour of the Star
So long as I have questions to which there are no answers, I shall go on writing.

The Hour of the Star
Everything in the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born.

The Hour of the Star
I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort.

The Hour of the Star
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays