“I was fascinated by the elephant”
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José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic huma…
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culture · Portuguese novelist (1922–2010) · journalist · playwright · translator · novelist · poet · chronicler · essayist · diarist · literary critic · writer · also José Saramago, Saramago
Born 16 November 1922 · Died 18 June 2010 · Q37060
80 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 2 entries
“it is not my intention to say”
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2024· 1 entry
Saramago's widow Pilar del Rio and the José Saramago Foundation donated a number of Saramago's belongings to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, including a pair of his glasses, a stone found in Lanzarote he kept at his
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2021· 1 entry
Awarded Grand Collar of the Order of Camões (2021).
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2020· 1 entry
The Guardian: Donmar Warehouse to reopen with José Saramago installation Blindness
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2012· 3 entries
The Guardian: Nadine Gordimer reads 'The Centaur' by José Saramago
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The Guardian: Raised from the Ground by José Saramago – review
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The Guardian: José Saramago novel finally published after 59 years
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2011· 1 entry
The Guardian: Cain by José Saramago – review
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2010· 39 entries
The Guardian: Paperback of the week: Small Memories by José Saramago
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The Guardian: The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago | Book review
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The Guardian: José Saramago, master of what-ifs | Maya Jaggi
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The Guardian: José Saramago obituary
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Died 2010-06-18.
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“Globalization is a form of totalitarianism... It is the rich who rule, and the poor live as they can.”
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Which was convened in Istanbul following a proposal he had co-authored
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“Opis: rozeszła się bowiem wiadomość, że zbliża się armada francuska z zamiarem podbicia kraju (…), ale w końcu armada okazała się flotą wiozącą dorsze.”
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“Nigdzie, nikt tego nie napisał, ja twierdzę, że Bóg nie ma lewej ręki, gdyż po jego prawicy, po prawicy, zasiadają wybrańcy, a nigdy się nie wspomina o jego lewicy, ani Pismo Święte, ani Doktorowie Kościoła, po lewicy Boga nikt nie zasiada, jest tam pustka, nicość, nieobecność, a więc Bóg jest jednoręki. Ksiądz głęboko odetchnął i zakończył: Brak mu lewej ręki.”
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“Inkwizycja przy każdej okazji zarzuca na świat sieci, które zawsze zapełniają, i w ten szczególny sposób stosuje się do nauki Chrystusa, który polecił Piotrowi, aby stał się rybakiem łowiącym ludzi.”
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“[Inkwizycja] ma oczy szeroko otwarte, zamiast wagi gałązkę oliwną, a ponadto jej miecz jest ostry w sytuacjach, gdy tamten [miecz sprawiedliwości] okazuje się tępy i poszczerbiony. Można by pomyśleć, że gałązka jest oznaką pokoju, wszelako jest oczywiste, że to po prostu podpałka przyszłego stosu.”
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“Se podes olhar, vê. Se podes ver, repara.”
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“A writer is a man like any other: he dreams. And my dream was to be able to say of this book, when I finished: 'This is a book about Alentejo.”
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“W chwili stworzenia Adam i Ewa umieli tyle samo i nigdzie nie jest powiedziane, że później, po wypędzeniu z raju, archanioł miałby dać im jakąś listę prac męskich i niewieścich, kobiecie powiedział tylko, w bólach rodzić będziesz, ale i to się skończy pewnego dnia.”
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“It is not pornography that is obscene, it is hunger that is obscene.”
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“Bo czymże w rzeczywistości jest człowiek, którego człowieczeństwo mierzy się siłą mięśni, otóż jest ucieleśnieniem strachu, boi się, że ta siła okaże się niewystarczająca, by powstrzymać potwora, który go bezlitośnie ciągnie ze sobą.”
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“Największa mądrość życiowa polega właśnie na obojętnym przyjmowaniu tego, co zsyłają niebiosa, słońce czy deszcz, byleby nie w nadmiarze, ale nawet i wtedy, bo przecież ani w czasie potopu nie zginęli wszyscy ludzie, ani nie było jeszcze takiej suszy, żeby nie przetrwała choćby jedna trawka lub nadzieja na jej odnalezienie.”
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“Każdy dzień jest kawałkiem historii, nikt nie jest w stanie opowiedzieć jej do końca.”
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“Sometimes I say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. If I can produce a great chair, even better. But above all I have to make sure that it has four stable feet.”
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“Nie należy mówić, choćby nie wiem co się stało, gdyż zawsze mogą stać się rzeczy nieprzewidziane, których nie braliśmy pod uwagę.”
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“Kostucha bowiem już krążyła wokół jego domu, to podchodziła do drzwi, to znowu się cofała, jakby ją zbijało z tropu milczenie starego, bo jak tu powiedzieć człowiekowi, Chodź ze mną, jeśli ten ani nie odpowiada, ani o nic nie pyta, tylko patrzy, takie spojrzenie może onieśmielać.”
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“We live in a very peculiar world. Democracy isn't discussed, as if it was taken for granted, as if democracy had taken God's place, who is also not discussed.”
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“Dopiero kiedy człowiek jest stary, zaczynają dziać się rzeczy przyszłe, stąd też potrafimy wierzyć w rzeczy, w które dawniej wątpiliśmy, a nawet nie wierząc, że tak mogło być, wierzymy, że tak będzie.”
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“[The Jewish people no longer deserves] sympathy for the suffering it went through during the Holocaust. … Living under the shadows of the Holocaust and willing to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They didn't learn anything from the suffering of their parents and grandparents.”
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“Każdy ma taki świat jaki widzą jego oczy.”
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“Przecież nawet Chrystus faworyzował Piotra i rozpieszczał Jana, choć apostołów było dwunastu. Pewnego dnia okaże się, że Judasz zdradził, gdyż czuł się opuszczony.”
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“Nikt z nas nie siedzi przecież w drugim człowieku, skąd więc możemy wiedzieć, co mu chodzi po głowie, przypisujemy po prostu innym własne myśli i później mówimy, Blimunda myślała, Baltazar pomyślał, a to wyłącznie nasze osobiste wrażenia.”
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“The universe has no news of our existence.”
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“Doesn't anybody understand that killing in the name of God only makes Him a murderer?”
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“If I could repeat my childhood, I would repeat it exactly as it was, with the poverty, the cold, little food, with the flies and pigs, all that.”
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“Nem a juventude sabe o que pode nem a velhice pode o que sabe.”
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“Bogów proszę tylko, by sprawili, bym o nic ich prosić nie musiał.”
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“Jestem żywy, wyszeptał, po czym głośno, dźwięcznie, Jestem żywy, a ponieważ nie było tam nikogo, kto mógłby zaprzeczyć uwierzył.”
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“Deep down, I don't create anything. I'm just someone who simply lifts a rock and exposes what's beneath it. It's not my fault that monsters come out some times.”
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“Deep down, the problem is not a God that does not exist, but the religion that proclaims Him. I denounce religions, all religions, as harmful to Humankind. These are harsh words, but one must say them.”
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“To me, the Bible is a book. Important, no doubt, but a book.”
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“I think that we do not deserve life, I think that religions have been and continue to be instruments of domination and death.”
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“There is nothing that is truly free nor democratic enough. Make no mistake, the internet did not come to save the world.”
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“I believe that I've been asked all possible questions. I, myself, if I were a journalist, would not know what to ask me.”
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2009· 2 entries
“Opis: w swoim pamiętniku 9 czerwca 2009.”
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Saramago responded, "I write two pages
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2007· 1 entry
Saramago founded his namesake foundation, José Saramago Foundation
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2006· 2 entries
“believe[s] that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens. As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved, it”
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Saramago said he "believe[s] that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens
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2004· 1 entry
Awarded America Award in Literature (2004).
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2003· 1 entry
Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone
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2002· 1 entry
“what is happening in Palestine is a crime we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz ... A sense of impunity characterises the Israeli people and its army. They have turned into rentiers of the Holocaust.”
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2001· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate of the University of Granada (2001).
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2000· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate of the University of Salamanca (2000).
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1999· 3 entries
Awarded honorary doctorate of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1999).
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Awarded honorary doctorate of the University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (1999).
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Awarded honorary doctorate of the Bordeaux Montaigne University (1999).
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1998· 4 entries
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.
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Awarded Grand Collar of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword (1998).
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Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (1998).
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Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the prize notation: "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality
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1997· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate of the University of Castille-La Mancha (1997).
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1995· 1 entry
Awarded Camões Prize (1995).
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1992· 1 entry
The Government of Portugal under Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva ordered the removal of one of his works, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, from the Aristeion Prize's shortlist, claiming the work was religiously o
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1991· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate of Seville University (1991).
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1988· 2 entries
And remained together until his death in June 2010
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As Baltasar and Blimunda (by Giovanni Pontiero) brought Saramago to the attention of an international readership
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1986· 1 entry
Saramago met a Spanish intellectual and journalist, Pilar del Río, 27 years his junior, and he promptly ended his relationship with Isabel Nóbrega, his partner since 1968
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1975· 1 entry
Saramago embraced his writing more seriously and in following years he published a series of important works including Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia (1977), Objecto Quase (1978), Levantado do Chão (1980) and Viagem a Po
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1974· 1 entry
On 9 April 1975, during the rule of Vasco Gonçalves, Saramago became the assistant director of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, and the editorial line became clearly pro-communist
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1970· 1 entry
Three collections of newspaper articles in 1971, 1973 and 1974 respectively, and the long poem The Year of 1993 in 1975
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1969· 1 entry
And remained a member until the end of his life
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1968· 1 entry
Met and became lover of writer Isabel da Nóbrega, the longtime partner of author and critic João Gaspar Simões
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1924· 1 entry
Saramago’s family relocated to Lisbon, where his father began working as a police officer
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1922· 2 entries
Born 1922-11-16.
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Into a family of very poor landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in Ribatejo Province, some one hundred kilometres northeast of Lisbon
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