Valeria Luiselli quotes

I can always, quite easily, put myself in other people's shoes, so to speak, and look at the world through them.
-- Valeria Luiselli

#World #Speak

I learned to keep at a certain distance from things - and to make myself a little bit invisible while I observed and understood them.
-- Valeria Luiselli

#Distance #Invisible

I like reading the world through a writer's eyes, rather than seeing a writer looking at him or herself as if at the center of gravity of the world around them.
-- Valeria Luiselli

#Reading #Eye #World

Cities have often been compared to language: you can read a city, it's said, as you read a book. But the metaphor can be inverted. The journeys we make during the reading of a book trace out, in some way, the private spaces we inhabit. There are texts that will always be our dead-end streets; fragments that will be bridges; words that will be like the scaffolding that protects fragile constructions.
-- Valeria Luiselli

#Reading #Book #Journey

Writers tend to think they occupy a much more relevant place in society than we actually do. But we really are closer to buffoons and jesters than we are to whistle-blowers or moral guides. Accepting our rather insignificant place in society can be depressing - but it's also freeing.
-- Valeria Luiselli

#Depressing #Thinking #Moral

A divided heart loses both worlds.

Perils as well as privileges attend the higher Christian life. The nearer we come to God, the thicker the hosts of darkness in heavenly places. Aggressive Christianity is the world's greatest need.

I'm the world's expert on sterotypes held by academics about athletes and held by athletes about academics. To me, both of them are caricatures.

Keeping up appearances is the most expensive thing in the world.

When you speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust... Withhold your hands from striking, and from taking that which is unlawful and bad...

If you intend to speak a vain word, replace it with a tasbih.

Speak the language of the person you want to become.

Gore speaks to America as if English is its second language; George W. speaks as if English is his second language.

How do I speak Spanish? Not too well.

I willingly speak to those who know, but for those who do not know I forget.