Fernando Vallejo

"Friendship is a luxury the poor cannot afford."

"The only honest emotion is rage."

"We construct ourselves through the stories we tell about ourselves."

"Death is the only democracy that exists."

"Life is a succession of betrayals by those we love."

"Art is the revenge of the weak against the strong."

"Justice is a word used by the powerful to oppress the weak."

"Every dream is a rehearsal for disappointment."

"The soul is a luxury for those with time to spare."

"We are all exiles from our own lives."

"Hope is the cruelest of all human inventions."

"The family is the first prison we inhabit."

"Happiness is a brief intermission between catastrophes."

"Literature is the last refuge of those who have lost everything else."

"We are condemned to remember what we desperately want to forget."

"Power corrupts not because of evil, but because power is itself evil."

"Courage is not the absence of fear; it is stupidity in the face of danger."

"The truth is always uglier than the lie we construct."

"Education is simply the indoctrination of the young into the old lies."

"Music is the language of those who cannot speak."

"Work is the curse of the conscious man."

"Gratitude is the gratitude of slaves."

"Adventure is what we call the mistakes of the young."

"Creativity is born from pain and desperation."

"Technology is the tomb we build for ourselves."

"War is the most honest expression of human nature."

"Perseverance is the stubbornness of the desperate."

"Strength lies not in muscle but in the ability to endure humiliation."

"Fear is the only truthful emotion."

"Money is congealed blood."