# Mercè Rodoreda's most memorable lines

"Things were beautiful, life not so much", "The important things are the ones that don't seem so" and "I write because I like writing": lines by the Catalan novelist Mercè Rodoreda (1908–1983) from her novels, prefaces, letters and interviews, with the source of each.

- 68 votes · 12 items
- Sep 6, 2025 · Berta Vidal Puig
- https://even.best/en/l/5335/merce-rodoreda-s-most-memorable-lines

## Top 12

1. **Sadness, which never deceives, had deceived me.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — De «Aloma» (1938).
2. **The important things are the ones that don't seem so.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — De «Quanta, quanta guerra…» (1980).
3. **Things were beautiful, life not so much.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — De «Aloma» (1938).
4. **Love: the further away, the more beautiful.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Citada por Montserrat Roig en «Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida» (1991).
5. **I write because I like writing. If it didn't sound exaggerated, I'd say I write to please myself.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Prólogo de «Espejo roto» (1974).
6. **Sometimes I think getting to know someone is easy. In a gesture, an expression, a step \[…\] I seem to see rays of light.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Artículo «Clarisme» (1934).
7. **Perhaps I write to affirm myself. To feel that I am…** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — Prólogo de «Espejo roto» (1974).
8. **I don't like Pedrolo. Brossa? Not even as a gift.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Sobre los escritores catalanes contemporáneos, 1980 (citado en El Punt Avui, 2014).
9. **I wrote it feverishly, as if every working day were the last of my life.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Sobre «La plaza del Diamante», en el prólogo de la 26.ª edición.
10. **What I will not leave behind in France is my energy or my youth.** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Carta a Anna Murià desde Burdeos, 19 de diciembre de 1945.
11. **I want to write, I need to write; nothing has given me as much pleasure as a book of mine just published and smelling of fresh ink.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Carta a Anna Murià desde Burdeos, 19 de diciembre de 1945.
12. **I have never felt so at home as when I lived in my grandfather's house with my parents.** (0 · ▲3 ▼3) — «Imatges d'infantesa», Serra d'Or (1982).

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.