Julio Cortázar was a famous Argentine writer and thinker born in 1914 . This writer is considered a master of the magic novel and poetry, being one of the most innovative authors of his time.

Of his works we could highlight some like: The prizes, Book of Emmanuel, Bestiary or The Secret Weapons. Although he spent his childhood and adolescence in Argentina, Cortázar chose to obtain French nationality as a symbol of rebellion against the military dictatorship that his country was experiencing at that time.

  • We recommend reading: “The 10 best poems by Julio Cortázar”

Great phrases and reflections of Julio Cortázar

For those of you who may not be familiar with the work of this great writer, we have made a selection of the 65 famous phrases of Julio Cortázar , which no one should miss.

1. Even the unexpected ends in habit when you have learned to endure.

In life we learn to deal with even the most unbearable situations.

2. Everything tomorrow is the blackboard where I invent and draw you.

Every day that we are lucky enough to be able to live, is a new day that we can make the most of.

3. I think we all have a bit of that beautiful madness that keeps us going when everything around us is so insanely sane.

Having a little bit of madness in our lives can remind us that we are still alive, it doesn’t have to be anything negative.

4. The explanation is a well-dressed mistake.

Even if a mistake has a plausible explanation, it is still a mistake.

5. I was a tango lyric for your indifferent melody.

Tango is a very popular style of music in Argentina, the land of this great writer.

6. We can’t be here so we can’t be.

Life has the meaning that we wish to give it; it is up to us what we do with it.

7. Probably of all our feelings the only one that is not truly ours is hope. Hope belongs to life, it is life itself defending itself.

As long as we have life we will always keep some hope within us, the hope of a better tomorrow.

8. I increasingly suspect that agreeing is the worst of illusions.

When a couple argues, they show appreciation for each other.

9. There is no way to share a pillow, that completely clears up the ideas; sometimes it even finishes with them, which is a tranquility.

In the life of a couple we learn to live with the other person and to know how to respect their ideas.

10. My interest soon became analytical. Tired of wondering, I wanted to know; that is the invariable and fatal end of every adventure.

Absorbing knowledge changes our personal perspective on the world.

11. I don’t know how to talk about happiness, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had it.

Explaining what happiness is for us can be very complicated, but we may still have felt it.

12. Thing, that unpleasant feeling that where our presumption ends, our punishment begins.

We must value the people around us, just as we want them to value us.

13. You were always my mirror, I mean, to see me I had to look at you.

The friendships and relationships we have identify us, as the saying goes tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are.

14. It made me sick to think like that, once again thinking about everything that others only had to feel.

Society can often upset us and make us feel very fed up with the life we live.

15. Let me in, let me see one day how your eyes see.

Who wouldn’t want to spend a day in their partner’s life? Something many of us have thought about at one time.

16. Nothing is lost if you have the courage to proclaim that everything is lost and you have to start over.

We must recognize our own mistakes and know when we have to start something again.

17. Look, there’s only one way to kill monsters; to accept them.

We’re all people, there’s no such thing as monsters. Besides, any living thing deserves our respect and consideration.

18. The books are the only place in the house where you can still be quiet.

Reading is an activity that we should all know how to value and practice assiduously.

19. And look, we hardly knew each other, and life was already plotting what was necessary to unite us in detail.

Life without knowing why separates us from many of our closest friends and family.

20. That is why we will never be the perfect couple, the postcard, if we are not able to accept that only in arithmetic is two born of one plus one.

There is no such thing as a perfect relationship; a relationship is about accepting the other person as they are.

21. Insignificant gifts such as a kiss at an unexpected time or a paper written in a hurry. They can be valued more than a piece of jewelry.

The smallest things can convey the true love that a person feels for us.

22. Who is willing to move, to get out of control, to get off-centre, to discover themselves?

In order to lead the life we desire, we must be brave and adventurous people.

23. I don’t give up anything, I just do what I can so that things give up on me.

Being consistent with who we are will take us down the road to where we really want to be.

24. For my part, I had already become accustomed to modestly exceptional things happening to me.

Life allows us to get used to all kinds of misfortunes, it can be really incredible what we come to mature in its course.

25. Somewhere there must be a garbage dump where the explanations are piled up. There is only one worry in this scenario: what might happen the day someone manages to explain the dump too.

For a bad action there are no possible explanations, we must know how to banish hypocrisy from our lives.

26. People think they are friends because they spend a few hours a week on a couch, a movie, sometimes a bed, or because they have to do the same work in the office.

Our partners are not our friends, real friends are extremely difficult to find.

27. Words are never enough when what has to be said overflows the soul.

The most heartbreaking emotions that we will experience throughout our lives cannot be explained in words, for they will be much more complex than any words we can say.

28. When it rained, the water went into my soul.

Throughout our lives we will live the different situations that we encounter in a very different way, because over time we change and evolve.

29. I won’t tire you out with any more poems. Let’s say I told you clouds, scissors, kites, pencils, and did you ever smile.

Cortázar was also a great poet, with internationally acclaimed works such as: Salvo el crepúsculo.

30. Poor love that of thought feeds.

True love is an emotion that comes from our heart, not our mind. It is something we cannot rationally explain.

31. In reality, the truly difficult things are all that people think they can do at any given moment.

There are many complicated tasks that we think we are fully capable of carrying out, especially until we try to do them.

32. If the human personality does not acquire all its strength, all its potency, among which the playful and the erotic are fundamental impulses, no revolution will fulfill its path.

Knowing how to express ourselves in all our essence is something very important, we should not be limited by anything or anyone.

33. We would fall into a dialectic of magnet and filing, of attack and defense, of ball and wall.

We must not let a conversation stagnate, for that we must do our part.

34. And I will say the words that are spoken, and eat the things that are eaten, and dream the things that are dreamed, and I know very well that thou wilt not be.

When a relationship doesn’t suit us, we have to get over it and move on with our lives.

35. And if we bite into the pain it is sweet, and if we drown in a brief and terrible simultaneous absorption of the breath, that instantaneous death is beautiful.

As we can see in this sentence, Julio Cortázar’s poetic capacity is very great.

36. We walked without looking for each other, but knowing that we were walking to meet.

We all have the feeling that there is an ideal person for us.

37. The island invaded him and he enjoyed it with such intimacy that he was unable to think or choose.

Certain places have the power to make us lose touch with reality.

38. You look for that thing you call harmony, but you look for it right there where you just said it isn’t, among friends, family, in the city…

In order to find spiritual fulfillment, sometimes we must cross certain limits that we usually impose on ourselves.

39. My evil understanding of the world helped me to laugh down

Our particular way of understanding the world around us can bring with it a very personal mood.

40. But it’s not the dream that’s bad. The bad thing is that they call it waking up.

When we woke up, we realized that what we had experienced was just a dream.

41. Why not accept what was happening without trying to explain it, without establishing the notions of order and disorder?

Sometimes we have no choice but to accept what life has to offer.

42. There are absences that represent a real triumph.

Some people are better off out of sight, our lives will be better off.

43. If you fall, I’ll pick you up, and if not, I’ll sleep with you.

A very nice phrase to indicate to our partner that we will always be with her.

44. He felt a kind of resentful tenderness, something so contradictory that it must be the truth itself.

Many times the emotions we feel can be somewhat contradictory, an emotion that only we understand.

45. The anthropomorphic features of a monkey reveal, contrary to what most people believe, the distance between them and us.

According to Darwin, man comes from the same branch of evolution as the ape. Do you think that’s true?

46. Behind this sad spectacle of words, the hope that you will read Me, that I have not died entirely in your memory, trembles unspeakably.

As we can see from this sentence, Cortázar hoped that this special person for him would read his words.

47. The only thing that was certain was the weight in the pit of the stomach, the physical suspicion that something was not right, that it had almost never been right.

Certain sensations indicate to us when something is not right, it is a kind of sixth sense that some people possess.

48. In literature there are no good themes and bad themes: there is only a good or bad treatment of the theme.

Indeed, for a subject to be valued as good, the writer has to be good in order to approach it as it deserves.

49. All that I would like from you is so little at heart, because at heart it is everything.

A phrase that indirectly says what we want from that person to whom we dedicate it: everything.

50. You don’t choose the rain that’s going to soak into your bones when you leave a concert.

As this sentence says, we do not control the weather, and so do many other things that happen to us.

51. By then I had already realized that searching was my sign, the emblem of those who go out at night without a fixed purpose, the reason for the compass killers.

Who hasn’t been out for a walk some night? Cortázar also lived in his life some night wandering.

52. And there at the bottom is death if we do not run and arrive first and understand that it no longer matters.

We will all have to live that moment as personal as our own death will be, we must know how to live with it.

53. What many people call love is choosing a woman and marrying her. They choose her, I swear, I’ve seen them. As if one could choose in love, as if it were not lightning that breaks your bones and leaves you staked out in the middle of the courtyard.

We cannot choose who we fall in love with, because the feelings we feel are not the fruit of any thought.

It is enough for me to look at you to know that with you I am going to soak my soul.

Some people, just by looking at them, know that we want them, simply without knowing why an instant connection arises in us.

55. And I must say that I have full confidence in the chance of having met you. That I will never try to forget you, and if I did, I would not succeed.

Coincidences can bring many positive things to our lives, the best is always the result of a coincidence.

56. What I like about your body is the sex. What I like about your sex is the mouth. What I like about your mouth is the tongue. What I like about your tongue is the word.

For this writer the word was the main source of attraction that a person could possess.

57. Since you could not hide, I realized immediately that to see you as I wanted, it was necessary to start by closing your eyes.

In order to have an honest relationship with our partner we must accept her as she is.

58. She loved the implausible messes she was always in because of the failure of the laws in her life.

Our way of being and our principles will make our life easier or more complicated.

59. Life, as a commentary on something else that we do not reach, and which is there within reach of the jump that we do not make.

To live life as we really want to, we must be brave and act when the situation requires it.

60. Come sleep with me: we will not make love, he will make us.

Being able to spend the night with our partner is something we all want to do every day of our lives.

61. How could I suspect that what seemed so false was true.

Some things we thought were not true, in time we discovered that they are great truths.

62. What do you want? Love asks for the street, it asks for the wind, it doesn’t know how to die in solitude.

When we are in love we feel much more active, because we have our hormones up to our eyeballs.

63. I am tormented by your love, which does not serve as a bridge because a bridge does not stand on one side only…

Love has a great power over us, the power to make us unhappy or completely happy.

64. Music! Melancholy food for those who live on love.

Music can help us explore our own feelings, as it allows us to connect with them much more easily.

65. I don’t think I love you, I just want the obvious impossibility of loving you. Like the left glove in love with the right hand.

Many times we fall in love with people we know are impossible for us, but life is like that, we don’t choose who we fall in love with.