3 Quotes & Sayings By Valeria Luiselli

Valeria Luiselli was born in Italy and began writing stories at an early age. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Short Story Short Story Prize, the Rome Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction, and the Premio Grinzane Cavour for literature. Her writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and Best American Essays. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

1
He fell into a solemn silence, which he only eventually broke to say, “I think I’ve become a terrible person. In fact, I’ve become a reptile. Do you know that reptiles are stupid because almost their entire brain capacity is used to feel fear? Valeria Luiselli
2
I had a theory; I’m not sure if it was my own but it worked for me. Public spaces, such as streets and subway stations, became inhabitable as I assigned them some value and imprinted an experience on them. If I recited a snatch of Paterson every time I walked along a certain avenue, eventually that avenue would sound like William Carlos Williams. The entrance to the subway at 116th Street was Emily Dickinson’s:Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn Indicative that suns go down; The notice to the startled grass That darkness is about to pass. . Valeria Luiselli