Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano; March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. He is considered by many as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets of all time...
NationalityMexican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth31 March 1914
CityMexico City, Mexico
CountryMexico
dread fixed reaching reverse time
We go along, without a fixed itinerary, yet at the same time with an end (what end?) in mind, and with the aim of reaching the end. A search for the end, a dread of the end: the obverse and the reverse of the same act.
definition form society takes
As it defines itself, every society defines other societies. That definition almost always takes the form of a condemnation: the 'other' is the barbarian.
great means painter transcends
To be a great painter means to be a great poet: someone who transcends the limits of his language.
poems
All poems say the same thing, and each poem is unique. Each part reproduces the others, and each part is different.
poetry
Any reflection about poetry should begin, or end, with this question: who and how many read poetry books?
applies delay duchamp dynamic means notion suggest
Futurists wanted to suggest movement by means of a dynamic painting; Duchamp applies the notion of delay - or, rather, or analysis - to movement.
love might object worship
In antiquity, a woman might be an object of worship or desire, but never of love.
history
Man, it seems to me, is not in history: he is history.
chances experience poetry risks verse
Poetry is the experience of liberty. The poet risks himself, chances all on the poem's all with each verse he writes.
bourgeois content manifest poetry society violation whatever
Poetry, whatever the manifest content of the poem, is always a violation of the rationalism and morality of bourgeois society.
poetry
Surrealism is not a poetry but a poetics, and even more, and more decisively, a world vision.
fated poet
To the poet fated to be a poet, self-expression is as natural and as involuntary as breathing is to us ordinary mortals.
abstract attempts essential forms meanings pictorial pure seeks shared signs thus
Abstract painting seeks to be a pure pictorial language, and thus attempts to escape the essential impurity of all languages: the recourse to signs or forms that have meanings shared by everyone.
author effective unread
An unread author is an author who is a victim of the worst kind of censorship, indifference - a censorship more effective than the Ecclesiastical Index.