“The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants .”

“Nothing was eaten in the house that was not seasoned in the broth of longing.”

“One night a friend lent me a book of short stories by Franz Kafka. I went back to the pension where I was staying and began to read The Metamorphosis. The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, “As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. . . .” When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn’t know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So I immediately started writing short stories.”

“In that Macondo forgotten even by the birds, where the dust and the heat had become so strong that it was difficult to breathe, secluded by solitude and love and by the solitude of love in a house where it was almost impossible to sleep because of the noise of the red ants, Aureliano, and Amaranta Úrsula were the only happy beings, and the most happy on the face of the earth.”

“Antes de volver a casa al día siguiente escribí en el espejo con el lápiz de labios: Niña mía, estamos solos en el mundo.”

“Poco antes del final, con un destello de júbilo, se dio cuenta de pronto que nunca había estado tan cerca de alguien a quien amaba tanto”

“El problema con el matrimonio es que se acaba todas las noches después de hacer el amor, y hay que volver a reconstruirlo todas las mañanas antes del desayuno.”