In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.
Mario Vargas LlosaRead
Sartre said that wars were acts and that, with literature, you could produce changes in history. Now, I don't think literature doesn't produce changes, but I think the social and political effect of literature is much less controllable than I thought.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature has the power to influence history, but its effects are unpredictable.
In this quote, Mario Vargas Llosa reflects on the thoughts of Sartre regarding the relationship between literature and historical change. While he acknowledges that literature can indeed bring about social and political shifts, he expresses a more cautious view, recognizing that the outcomes of literary works are often less controllable and predictable than one might hope.
Themes
LiteratureChangeHistorySocialPoliticalInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of literature on society, this quote could illustrate the complexities of that influence.
More from Mario Vargas Llosa
All quotes →I think if you're impregnated with good literature, with good culture, you're much more difficult to manipulate, and you're much more aware of the dangers that powers represent.
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Part of the reasons I have lived the life I have is because I wanted to have an adventurous life. But my best adventures are more literary than political.
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I don't want to finish my life not being alive. I think that is the saddest thing that can happen to a person. I want to keep living to the end.
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Today, everybody is more or less conscious of the total failure of the Cuban revolution to produce wealth, to produce a better standard of living for the Cubans. With the exception of small radical parties, Latin Americans know that it's a brutal dictatorship and the longest in Latin American history.
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When I was growing up, the Spanish-speaking world was Balkanized. We were isolated. We didn't know what was happening in cultural terms in Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. Nowadays, this has changed a lot - fortunately for writers and readers. There is much more integration.
Mario Vargas LlosaRead
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