Antonio Gala (Ciudad Real, 1936) is one of the most prolific and outstanding writers of Spanish literature of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

A playwright and poet, he showed a great predilection for reading and the academic world at an early age, graduating in economics, philosophy and literature, political science and law.

Great sentences by Antonio Gala

A communist and freethinker, he won more than 500 awards for his magnificent and multifaceted work. We review the life and thought of one of the most respected Spaniards in the world.

Let’s get to know the best phrases of Antonio Gala and some of his most ingenious and famous quotes.

1. Politics is the business of those who serve no other purpose.

True to his sceptical and ironic style, he thus criticized the actors in Spanish politics.

2. Power happens to you like a walnut tree, it doesn’t let anything grow under its shadow…

On the political structure and its yoke.

3. The bull was roaring with pain, bellowing with pain, filling the air, crying out to the sky in vain. The workers made him dizzy with their capes, and suddenly he looked at me, with the innocence of all the animals reflected in his face, but also with an imploration.

Against the barbarity of bullfighting.

4. Someone said that the moon is so pale because it only lives at night.

Great poetic phrase from the great city realist.

5. Each one is heir to himself, wrote Rabelais referring to the Greek calends. Well, we have come to them. Now nothing is as it was. Now we have the big problem: we are alone and we have to choose. We are, in theory, free; we are, in theory: masters of our destiny; we have to seek our own identity through our particular experiences. Such is our first need; to be oneself. And it is better that we be so without the help of others, so mediatized. To be oneself and to be happy: what a life project. Perhaps the source of happiness, if there is any, is within us. Perhaps it consists in preserving one’s own self, not another, and never being another, however good it may seem. Perhaps it consists in accepting oneself reflectively and docilely as one is, and to unfold oneself.

A maxim to apply to our daily life.

6. Love is the poetry of the senses. But there are very bad poems…

Just as there are toxic and unlivable loves.

7. Perfect love is a friendship with erotic moments.

This is how Antonio Gala described the concept of love.

8. The pain is strongest among the strongest. Like cancer.

Unfortunately, the strong tend to endure more levels of pain and suffering.

9. The writer is often like a racehorse that has lost its rider and no longer knows why it is running or where the finish line is, yet is required to keep running even if it does not know where or for what reason.

A metaphor to understand the professional life of a writer.

10. He who does not love is always right: it is the only thing he has.

Devoid of love, human beings only find compassion in their daily misery.

11. A rose can fit every spring.

The part for the whole.

12. This society gives us facilities to make love, but not to fall in love…

Great reflection on today’s society.

13. The dictatorship presents itself as an armored one because it has to win. Democracy is presented naked because it has to convince.

One of Antonio Gala’s most applauded phrases.

14. Happiness is realizing that nothing is too important.

Nothing should take the joy out of us for more than a couple of minutes.

15. Religion should not exist. It should be forbidden by God, but since it does not exist…

A phrase he uttered during an interview with Jesus Quinteros on Canal Sur.

16. To call a rite as bloody as a bullfight a feast is the opposite of calling the bloodless rite of the Mass a sacrifice…

Another reflection on his opposition to the killing of bulls.

17. Worldly, nothing is recognized but wars, hatreds… not beauty.

His passion was to find beauty in the little things of everyday life.

18. No one can say that a warm and happy nest will produce great people. It is the maladjustment to the imperfect that makes man better.

19. I’m not a pessimist. I’m a well-informed optimist.

Ironic reflection on optimism and pessimism.

20. Our society has reached a moment when it no longer worships the golden calf, but the gold of the calf.

On the difficulty of determining reality.

21. It is instructive to see how the nationalists make their own bed, at the expense of the insomnia of the rest of the country. No honest mind will understand such attitudes. To prolong the time of blackmail, both the shopkeeper Pujol and Father Arzalluz encourage Gonzalez to refuse the motion of confidence (even threatening not to support it if he initiates it) as well as not to advance the general ones. Rebus sic stantibus, they will continue milking the cow. They do not mind, however (sic), being part of the central government, although not “of wards”. And they say it with their little mouths, while with the other they talk to Aznar, who is their counterpart… Then, with such representatives, they will want Catalans and Basques to love them.

Talking about various Spanish government presidents.

22. Everything a woman really wants – a dog, a man, God, anything – she wants as a son…

If love is true, it can only be this kind of unconditional love.

23. All progress that is not human is not progress.

Interesting reflection by Antonio Gala.

24. A house is the place where one is expected.

This is how you recognize a home.

25. Live not in accordance with the ideals you have received, but with your aspirations, with your most vehement intuition.

The moral basis for a full life.

26. The country does not exist without the love of its children.

Nationalism is based on love between compatriots.

27. When one collaborates with a madman or comments on his hobbies, one falls into madness.

Over-analyzing the behavior of others can lead us into a trap.

28. Good governments are known when what they do is worth more than what their opponents say.

A maxim by Antonio Gala for good politics.

29. There are things that should not be forgiven. If God forgives them, there he is. I forgive with difficulty.

A grudge point can be functional for life.

30. The privileged will always risk their complete destruction rather than give up a minimal part of their privileges.

About an unequal society.

31. The book is a pole that allows you to make unimaginable jumps in space and time; the witness of the most beautiful relay race; an infallible and intimate silent friend.

Thus the Antonio Gala to literature.

32. I understand that we dying people attract prizes.

An ironic reflection on the more than 500 awards and recognitions obtained.

33. Until a man discovers his feminine side he will not feel complete and situated.

An avowed homosexual, Antonio Gala spoke thus about masculinity.

34. I’m one of the top-selling writers in this country… and one of the least read.

Selling a lot doesn’t mean you have to read a lot.

35. Maybe that’s what love is all about: the gesture of getting close and forgetting. Everyone remains himself, but there are two bodies that merge.

Referring to the most basic elements of love.

36. I love my dogs, whose bark I could make out from afar and whose mood I can predict, just as they can predict mine. Aren’t my dogs and other people’s dogs people?

Gala extends the meaning of the word person to dogs because of their mental capabilities.

About his love of animals.

37. On this beach I loved you so much that one breath was enough for both of us.

More lyricism embodied in this way of expressing the meaning of love.

38. Pretend no more, hide not the excessive hunger for Me that burns in your eyes.

An invitation to let go of inhibitions.

39. When love begins, there is a moment when God is surprised to have woven something so beautiful.

Love can be related to the divine.

40. Melancholy, like sadness, is a feeling that stains. Joy seems to me to be the gift where we are.

A reflection on melancholy.

41. Hold me in your wings, so that another air may not touch me but your breath, from which I live and die.

The romantic and tragic component of this way of expressing oneself becomes evident.

42. People have a strange predilection for me. Because they perceive in me invalidity, loneliness, and then they love me in a special way, in a protective way.

Vulnerability can also generate attraction, according to Gala.

43. Shut up, lovers, and occupy the lip with the kiss. Do not pronounce vain words while your heart is searching for another breast, panting and poor like yours, already at the edge of the dawn.

Another expression of artistic sensitivity based on the theme of love.

44. To be old is to be overcome by the bitter suspicion of not caring.

A way of looking at old age with emphasis on some social phenomena.

45. My autobiography… I was supposed to start it recently, but I haven’t started it. It was going to be called Self-Portrait with Landscape in the Background, but in the end it’s going to be called, Don’t Move, I know the way out.

Humour appears once again in this author’s reflections.

46. I have always been surrounded by women; I am very attracted to the female soul.

Detail about the personal life of this artist.

47. I’ve been vulnerable. I’ve been easy to hurt. I’ve been easy, and I’ve been fragile. I’ve felt deep wounds that others would have missed.

A life path full of imperfections.

48. Without you, neither bread nor wine, nor life, nor hunger, nor the juicy color of the morning have any meaning or purpose.

One person can change everything.

49. For thou art invulnerable to oblivion, break me now, love, undo my breast and nest in it, my demon and angel.

Love can become anchored in memories.

50. Victory hurts you, and docilely on your shoulders you carry your destiny of love, my delicate and bloody life.

An elegant soliloquy.

51. Your task is daily and decisive: as long as the sun shines, you will be burning; as long as life lasts, you will be alive.

Great passions can also be reflected in everyday life.

52. It was by the sea, at midnight. I knew that God was there, and that the sand and you and the sea and I and the moon were God. And I worshipped him.

Description full of feeling.

53. I’m interested in women. Besides, women read more than anyone else. My protagonists are always women. I love them more, I admire them more, and they tell me confidences that they don’t tell other women.

About his appreciation for women in general.

54. Yes, I think in the abstract, that’s something that literally takes my sleep away, despite the pills I take.

A way of reading reality based on abstract ideas.

55. I just don’t care about Cela’s ass. What happened to his ass is his business.

One more sign of his propensity for irreverence.

56. It was winter; you arrived and it was summer. When the real summer comes, what will become of us?

Metaphors that talk about love and affection.

57. Who could hold, like a bridle, the unparalleled rainbow of your gaze from your light to my black fall.

Another of Antonio Gala’s phrases full of romanticism.

58. The truth is, this country is run by a collection of fools.

A not very hopeful vision of the Spanish political scene.

59. I’d like to kick the theater to wake it up.

Complaints about the conformism and stagnation of this type of art.

60. I have a great capacity for admiration, surprise and curiosity, which are the three things that most define childhood.

Antonio Gala talks about several of his personal characteristics.

61. I do not aspire to anything, not even to be an usher at the Ministry of Culture, and I care very little for the rulers.

About the kind of motivations that drive him.

62. Let no judge declare my innocence, because, in this long-term process, I will seek only the life sentence of your embrace.

Emphasizing the tragic nature that love sometimes takes on.

63. The woman’s is the house, where the man is a guest.

A way of looking at gender roles.

64. Rajoy always made me laugh, but now I feel sorry for him.

About the former Prime Minister of Spain.

65. Honest politicians get out of the way when suspicion falls on them.

Another of Gala’s views on politics.

How can we eat without you, without the pious habit of your wings that refresh the air and renew the light?

Another of this playwright’s lyrical displays.

67. I’m not a royalist. But I understand the work the King has done and I have great personal sympathy for him.

This artist separates personal value from political value.

68. I love the word “fuss”, it’s like the nickname of a whore. Look at her, here comes “fuss”!

A sample of his irreverent sense of humor.

69. It is not a question of adding years to life, but of giving life to the years.

A defense of vitalism.

70. I would not want to think if I did not think that, deprived of your beauty, I would forget myself if I forgot you.

One of Antonio Gala’s most romantic phrases.