Josep Pla is one the greatest Catalan writers of all times. His work “El Quadern Gris” is one the cornerstones of modern Catalan literature.
Discover The Gray Notebook
Here below one interview (in Spanish) where one encounters a myriad of insightful thoughts that reveal a profound yet minimalistic view of life.
The Best Josep Pla Quotes
“Lo más profundo que tiene el hombre, es su superficie.”
The deepest a man has is his surface.
“No… He vivido muy poco, yo. No sé, por ejemplo, lo que es el amor.”
No… I barely lived. I don’t know, for instance, what love is.
“La condición para ser feliz en la vida es no ser envidioso.”
The prerequisite to be happy in life is not being envious.
“Y por esto fumo; para buscar adjetivos.”
And that is why I smoke, to find adjectives.
“Barcelona es una cosa espantosa. Agobiante y de escasísima calidad.”
Barcelona is a frightening thing. Oppressive and of very little value.
“Hay una manera de ser Mediterráneo? Bueno, en el Mediterráneo se ha inventado todo.”
Is there something like a Mediterranean way of being? Well, everything has been invented in the Mediterranean.
“Nosotros no somos más que animales climáticos.”
We are nothing more than climatic animals.
“La única cosa que me interesa es vivir en un país exactamente consolidado.”
The only thing that interests me is living in an exactly consolidated country.
“La única cosa que he hecho en la vida es leer.”
The only thing that I have done in live is to read.
“Rusia (1925) no es más que una tendencia en que los pobres sean ricos y los ricos sean pobres.”
“Russia (1925) is nothing more than a tendency for the poor to be rich and the rich to be poor.”
“La poca libertad que tenemos se la debemos a Inglaterra.”
The little freedom we have we owe it to England.
“Y la perdieron, cómo perdieron los italianos todas la guerras, por qué no son gente de guerras. Los italianos son gente de pensamiento, de comer y de las señoritas.”
And they lost it, how the Italians lost all the wars, because they are not people of wars. The Italians are people of thought, of eating, and of the ladies. “
“El socialismo es una cosa pagada por el capitalismo.”
Socialism is a thing paid by capitalism.
“Usted no me conoce? Soy la persona más insignificante del mundo.”
You don’t know me? I am the most insignificant person in the world.
“Yo no soy más que un ‘xerraire’.”
I am nothing but a chatterbox.
“Yo he viajado mucho en barcos petroleros.”
I travelled a lot in oil tankers.
“A mí a veces la burguesía me fatiga enormemente, el ‘fatxenda’ de aquí…”
Sometimes the bourgeoisie tires me enormously, the local ‘arrogant‘ …
“No, a mí no me quite usted los libros, de ver el cielo, y de hablar con la gente.”
No, do not take away books from me, to see the sky, and to talk to people.
“Han hecho cosas tremendas los griegos.”
The Greeks have done tremendous things.
“Casi más comerciantes que los catalanes. (De los griegos)”
Almost more merchants than the Catalans. (Speaking of the Greeks)
“Y yo casi todo lo que he escrito no tiene ningún valor.”
And I almost everything I’ve written has no value.
“Una de las cosas que no gustan a la gente es ser demasiado perfecto.”
One of the things that people do not like is being too perfect.
“Desde mi punto de vista, cómo artista (de Gaudí) no vale absolutamente nada.”
From my point of view, as an artist (speaking of Gaudí) is worth absolutely nothing.
“- Tolstoi?
– Sí!
– Dostoyevski?
– Nada, creo que es un degenerado total.”
-Tolstoi?
-Yes!
-Dostoyevski?
-Nothing, I think he’s a total degenerate.
“Las mujeres son una cosa muy rara.”
Josep Pla
Women are a very strange thing
Discover The Gray Notebook
Josep Pla’s Gray Notebook is one of the most colorful and unusual works in modern Literature.