Jose Saramago Quotes

Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.

Without the faintest possibility of finding a job, I decided to devote myself to literature: it was about time to find out what I was worth as a writer.

What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of a human being?

We’re not short of movements proclaiming that a different world is possible, but unless we can coordinate them into an international movement, capitalism just laughs at all these little organisations.

Things will be very bad for Latin America. You only have to consider the ambitions and the doctrines of the empire, which regards this region as its backyard.

There are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.

There are plenty of reasons not to put up with the world as it is.

The world is governed by institutions that are not democratic – the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO.

The world had already changed before September 11. The world has been going through a process of change over the last 20 or 30 years. A civilization ends, another one begins.

The U.S. needs to control the Middle East, the gateway to Asia. It already has military installations in Uzbekistan.

The problem is that the right doesn’t need any ideas to govern, but the left can’t govern without ideas.

The period that I could consider the most important in my literary work came about beginning with the Revolution, and in a certain way, developed as a consequence of the Revolution. But it was also a result of the counterrevolutionary coup of November 1975.

The novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers.