“It took me many years not to make arrogant distinctions between good and bad.”

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice...”

“I can't think of any film that improved on a good novel, but I can think of many good films that came from very bad novels.”

“On the other hand, for years I did not listen to Mozart after I was assaulted by the perverse idea that Mozart does not exist, because when he is good he is Beethoven and when he is bad he is Haydn.”

“It is incredible how one can be happy for so many years in the midst of so many squabbles, so many problems, damn it, and not really know if it was love or not.”

“The heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.”

“And again, as always, after so many years we were still in the same place we always were.”