Augusto Roa Bastos
Augusto Roa Bastos, (June 13, 1917 April 26, 2005), was a Paraguayan novelist, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest that nation has produced. He was best known for Yo el Supremo (1974; translated as "I, the Supreme"), one of the foremost Latin American novels to tackle the question of dictators and dictatorships, in the person of Jos Gaspar Rodrguez, who ruled Paraguay with an iron fist and no little eccentricity for 26 years in the early 19th century. His other major work was Hijo de Hombre (1960; "Son of Man"); he also wrote numerous other novels and stories.
4 Quotes
Anyone who attempts to relate his life loses himself in the immediate. One can only speak of another.
— Augusto Roa Bastos
The things that have come into being change continually. The man with a good memory remembers nothing because he forgets nothing.
— Augusto Roa Bastos
Facts can't be recounted; much less twice over, and far less still by different persons. I've already drummed that thoroughly into your head. What happens is that your wretched memory remembers the words and forgets what's behind them.
— Augusto Roa Bastos
Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.
— Augusto Roa Bastos