“I call my verses only semi-poetry, and my realities, subject to the laws of ordinary mortal life, I dare call nothing more than possibility.”

Original: Yo no llamo a mis versos sino semi-poesía, y a mis realidades, que obedecen a la ley de vida de los simples mortales, no oso llamar otra cosa que posibilidad. — Characterising his work with modesty and an awareness of human limitation · Academy address, Semi-poesía y posibilidad, 1938 (Spanish)

• Humility
• Life
• Poetry

“I shall go on committing Gallicisms whenever they suit me, if they make me more expressive and clear.”

Original: Seguiré cometiendo galicismos siempre que me acomode para ser más expresivo y claro. — Putting clarity and expressive power before strict linguistic convention · Preface, La guerra literaria (Spanish)

• Communication
• Freedom
• Language

“My earliest memory is of myself, aged a year and a half or two, in my grandparents' courtyard in Seville, playing with a lovely, utterly gentle Angora cat that retreats from my caresses onto a stool upholstered in black gutta-percha, barely within reach of my mischievous little hands.”

Original: La primera imagen mía que yo conservo en la memoria me representa de edad de año y medio o dos años en el patio de la casa de mis abuelos, en Sevilla, jugando con una preciosa—y mansísima—gata de Angora, que se refugia de mis caricias sobre una banqueta forrada de gutapercha negra, a la que apenas alcanzo con mis manecillas revoltosas. — The opening of his academy address, tracing his… · Unos versos, un alma y una época, RAE induction speech, 1938 (Spanish)

• Childhood
• Home
• Memory