“When a poet paints his love for you in magnificent verse, doubt him. When he reveals it to you in prose, and bad prose at that, believe him.”

Original: Cuando un poeta te pinta en magníficos versos su amor, duda. Cuando te lo dé á conocer en prosa, y mala, cree. — With characteristic irony, Bécquer suggests that spontaneous prose may reveal genuine feeling more honestly than polished verse. · Letter II, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Irony
• Love
• Poetry

“When I feel, I do not write. I keep in my brain, as in a mysterious book, the impressions that have left their mark upon it.”

Original: Cuando siento no escribo. Guardo, sí, en mi cerebro escritas, como en un libro misterioso, las impresiones que han dejado en él su huella al pasar. — Bécquer describes creation as an act of recollection in which experience is allowed to settle before becoming art. · Letter II, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Inspiration
• Memory
• Writing

“The memory a book leaves behind is more important than the book itself.”

Original: El recuerdo que deja un libro es más importante que el libro mismo. — The lasting emotional and intellectual impression of reading matters more than the physical book. · Prose remark, commonly attributed (Spanish)

• Books
• Memory
• Reading