Julio Cortázar's most beautiful lines
The top 3 according to 23 votes from people: We walked without looking for each other, but knowing we walked to find each other. · Would I find La Maga? · As if one could choose in love, as if it weren't a lightning bolt that splits your bones…. (Updated May 13, 2022.)
Lines from Hopscotch, Cronopios and Famas and other texts by Cortázar, each with the work it comes from. Only verified quotes: many lines attributed to him online aren't his.
Automatically translated (original in Español). See the original
Top 11
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1
We walked without looking for each other, but knowing we walked to find each other.
Hopscotch (1963), chapter 1.
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2
Would I find La Maga?
The opening line of Hopscotch (1963).
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3
As if one could choose in love, as if it weren't a lightning bolt that splits your bones…
Hopscotch, on what most people call love.
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4
I touch your mouth, with one finger I touch the edge of your mouth…
Hopscotch, chapter 7, one of the most-read love passages in Spanish literature.
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5
Man is the animal who asks. The day we truly know how to ask, there will be dialogue.
Hopscotch (1963).
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6
When they give you a watch they give you a tiny flowering hell, a chain of roses, a dungeon of air.
«Preamble to the Instructions on How to Wind a Watch», Cronopios and Famas (1962).
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7
Average duration of crying, three minutes.
The punchline of «Instructions on How to Cry» (1962).
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8
What I like about your mouth is the tongue. / What I like about your tongue is the word.
From the poem «What I like about your body…», collected in Papeles inesperados.
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9
…and I feel you tremble against me like a moon in the water.
The end of chapter 7 of Hopscotch.
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10
What I think of Mafalda doesn't matter. What matters is what Mafalda thinks of me.
Written for Quino's «10 años con Mafalda».
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11
To cry, direct your imagination toward yourself…
«Instructions on How to Cry», Cronopios and Famas (1962).
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (13)
Falta algo de Final del juego o de Bestiario.
Leí Rayuela a los 19 y me cambió la vida.
Rayuela se lee en el orden que quieras, eso ya es genial.
Cronopios y famas, para releer cada año.
Cortázar y Mafalda, dos argentinos enormes.
Las Instrucciones para llorar, geniales.
«Andábamos sin buscarnos pero sabiendo que andábamos para encontrarnos», la frase que me tatuaría.
Precioso listado.
El capítulo 7 de Rayuela es lo más bonito que se ha escrito.
Lo del reloj como un pequeño infierno florido, qué imagen.
«Duración media del llanto, tres minutos», jaja, genial.
Se agradece que solo pongan frases comprobadas, a Cortázar le atribuyen cualquier cosa.
¿Encontraría a la Maga? Y así empezó todo.