Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguelis an Argentine Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such as The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, A History of Reading, The Library at Nightand Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography; and novels such as News From a Foreign Country Came. Though almost all of Manguel's books were written in English, two of his novelswere written in Spanish, and El regreso has not yet been published in English. Manguel has also...
NationalityArgentinian
ProfessionWriter
children book home
I always knew that I wanted to live with books, even as a child, because we traveled a lot. Home was the book to which I came back every evening.
government office lockers
Readers are bullied in schoolyards and in locker-rooms as much as in government offices and prisons.
library exclusion preference
Every library is a library of preferences, and every chosen category implies an exclusion.
book creating culture
One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries.
book reader
A book brings its own history to the reader.
reading breathing essentials
We read to understand, or to begin to understand. We cannot do but to read. Reading almost as much as breathing, is our essential function.
lonely children book
I don't remember ever feeling lonely; in fact, on the rare occasions when I met other children I found their games and their talk far less interesting than the adventures and dialogues I read in my books.
book reading writing
For Borges, the core of reality lay in books; reading books, writing books, talking about books. In a visceral way, he was conscious of continuing a dialogue begun thousands of years before and which he believed would never end.
book association reader
The association of books with their readers is unlike any other between objects and their users.
reading responsibility crafts
All these are readers, and their gestures, their craft, the pleasure, the responsibility and the power they derive from reading, are common with mine. I am not alone.
revenge lying heart
As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge - bloodthirsty, justice-hungry revenge - is the very essence of romance, lying at the heart of much of the best fiction.
order library realms
During the day, the library is a realm of order.
memories giving-up book
I know that something dies when i give up my books, and that my memory keeps going back to them with mournful nostalgia.
language barriers
As we read a text in our own language, the text itself becomes a barrier.