The 70 Best Phrases of Antonio Gala

Antonio Gala (Ciudad Real, 1936) is one of the most prolific and outstanding writers of Spanish literature of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Playwright and poet, at a young age he showed a great predilection for reading and the academic world, graduating in economics, philosophy and literature, political science and law.

Great phrases by Antonio Gala

A communist and freethinker, he obtained more than 500 awards for his magnificent and multifaceted work. We review the life and thoughts of one of the most respected Spaniards throughout the planet.

Let’s get to know the best phrases of Antonio Gala and some of his most ingenious famous quotes.

1. Those who are not good for anything else are dedicated to politics.

True to his skeptical and ironic style, he thus criticized the actors in Spanish politics.

2. Power is like the walnut tree, it does not let anything grow under its shadow…

About the political structure and its yoke.

3. The bull bellowed in pain, it roared in pain, it filled the air, it cried out to heaven in vain. The workers made him dizzy with their capes and suddenly he looked towards me, with the innocence of all animals reflected in his face, but also with an imploration.

Against the barbarism of bullfighting.

4. Someone has said that the moon is so pale because it lives exclusively at night.

Great poetic phrase from the great city of Real.

5. Each one is his own heir, wrote Rabelais, referring to the Greek calends. Well, we have reached them. Now nothing is as it was. Now we are faced with the big problem: we are alone and we have to choose. We are, in theory, free; We are, in theory: masters of our destiny; We have to search for our own identity through our particular experiences. Such is our first need; be yourself. And it is better that we do so without outside help, such mediators. Being yourself and being happy: what a life project. Perhaps the source of happiness, if it has one, is within us. Perhaps it consists of preserving one’s own self, not another, and never being another no matter how good it may seem. Perhaps it consists of reflectively and docilely accepting yourself as you are, and unfolding yourself.

A maxim to apply to our daily lives.

6. Love is the poetry of the senses. But there are very bad poems…

Just as there are toxic and uninhabitable loves.

7. Perfect love is a friendship with erotic moments.

This is how Antonio Gala described the concept of love.

8. The pain is strongest among the strongest. Like cancer.

Unfortunately, the strong tend to endure more levels of pain and suffering.

9. The writer, many times, is like a racehorse that has lost its rider and no longer knows why it is running or where the finish line is, and yet is required to continue running even though it does not know where or why. What reason.

A metaphor to understand the professional life of a writer.

10. He who does not love is always right: it is the only thing he has.

Devoid of love, human beings only find compassion in their daily misery.

11. All the primroses fit in a rose.

The part for the whole.

12. This society gives us facilities to make love, but not to fall in love…

Great reflection on today’s society.

13. The dictatorship appears armored because it must win. Democracy presents itself naked because it has to convince.

One of Antonio Gala’s most applauded phrases.

14. Happiness is realizing that nothing is too important.

Nothing should take away our joy for more than a couple of minutes.

15. Religion should not exist. It should be forbidden by God, but since it doesn’t exist…

A phrase he uttered during an interview with Jesús Quinteros on Canal Sur.

16. Calling a rite as bloody as a bullfight a party is the opposite of calling the bloodless rite of the mass a sacrifice…

Another reflection on his opposition to the killing of bulls.

17. Worldwide, nothing is recognized except wars, hatred… not beauty.

His passion was finding beauty in the small everyday things.

18. No one can say that a warm and happy nest will give rise to very great people. The inadaptation to the imperfect is what improves man.

19. I am not a pessimist. I am a well-informed optimist.

Ironic reflection on optimism and pessimism.

20. Our society has reached a time when it no longer worships the golden calf, but the gold of the calf.

About the difficulty of understanding reality.

21. It is instructive to see how nationalists make their own bed, at the expense of the rest of the country’s insomnia. No honest mind will understand such attitudes. To prolong the time of the blackmail, both the shopkeeper Pujol and Father Arzalluz encourage González to refuse the motion of confidence (even threatening not to support him in it if he initiates it) as well as not to advance the general ones. Rebus sic stantibus, they will continue milking the cow. They do not mind, however (sic), being part of the central Government, although not “wards.” And they say it with their small mouths, while with the other they talk to Aznar, who is their counterpart… Then, with such representatives, they will want Catalans and Basques to love them.

Talking about several Spanish presidents of the government.

22. Everything a woman really wants – a dog, a man, God, anything – she wants like a son…

If love is true, it can only be this type of unconditional love.

23. Any progress that is not human is not progress.

Interesting reflection by Antonio Gala.

24. A house is the place where one is expected.

This is how you recognize a home.

25. Live not according to received ideals, but with your aspirations, with your most vehement intuition.

The moral bases for a full life.

26. The country does not exist without the love of its children.

Nationalism is based on love between compatriots.

27. When you collaborate with a madman or discuss his manias, you fall into madness.

Overanalyzing the behaviors of others can lead us into a trap.

28. Good governments are known when what they do is worth more than what their opponents say.

A maxim from Antonio Gala for good politics.

29. There are things that should not be forgiven. If God forgives them, so be it. I forgive with difficulty.

A point of resentment can be functional for life.

30. The privileged will always risk their complete destruction rather than give up a minimal part of their privileges.

About an unequal society.

31. The book is a pole that allows unimaginable leaps in space and time; the witness of the most beautiful relay race; an infallible and intimate silent friend.

This is how Antonio Gala praises literature.

32. I understand that we dying people are attracted to prizes.

An ironic reflection on the more than 500 awards and recognitions obtained.

33. Until a man discovers his feminine side he will not feel complete and situated.

A declared homosexual, Antonio Gala spoke like this about masculinity.

34. I am one of the best-selling writers in this country… and one of the least read.

Selling a lot does not mean being well read.

35. Maybe love is simply that: the gesture of approaching and forgetting. Each one remains himself, but there are two bodies that merge.

Referring to the most basic elements of love.

36. I love my little dogs, whose barking I could distinguish from afar and whose mood I can predict, just like they can predict mine. My dogs and those of others, aren’t they people?

Gala extends the meaning of the word person to dogs because of their mental abilities.

About his love for animals.

37. On this beach I loved you so much that one breath was enough for both of us.

More lyricism captured in this way of expressing the meaning of love.

38. Don’t pretend anymore, don’t hide the excessive hunger for me that burns in your eyes.

An invitation to let go of inhibitions.

39. When love begins, there is a moment when God is surprised to have concocted something so beautiful.

Love can be related to the divine.

40. Melancholy, like sadness, is a staining feeling. Joy seems to me to be the gift where we find ourselves.

A reflection on melancholy.

41. Embrace me in your wings so that no other air touches me but your breath, on which I live and die.

The romantic and tragic component of this way of expressing oneself becomes evident.

42. People have a strange predilection for me. Because he perceives in me the disability, the loneliness, and then he loves me in a special way, in a protective way.

Vulnerability can also generate attraction, according to Gala.

43. Be silent, lovers, and occupy your lips with the kiss. Do not speak vain words while your heart is sought in another chest, panting and poor like yours, already on the edge of dawn.

Another expression of artistic sensitivity based on the theme of love.

44. To be old is to be overcome by the bitter suspicion of not caring about anyone.

A way of seeing old age placing emphasis on some social phenomena.

45. My autobiography… I should have started it recently, but I haven’t started it. It was going to be titled Self-Portrait with Landscape in the Background, but in the end it was going to be called, Don’t Move, I Know the Way Out.

Humor makes an appearance once again in the reflections of this author.

46. ​​I have always been surrounded by women, I am very attracted to the feminine soul.

Detail about the personal life of this artist.

47. I have been vulnerable. I have been easy to hurt. I have been easy, and fragile. I have felt very deep wounds that would have gone unnoticed by others.

A life path full of imperfections.

48. Without you, neither bread nor wine, nor life, nor hunger, nor the juicy color of the morning have any meaning nor are they useful for anything.

One person can change everything.

49. Since you are invulnerable to oblivion, violate me now, love, undo my chest and nest in it, my demon and angel.

Love can become anchored in memories.

50. Victory hurts you, and you meekly carry your destiny of love on your back, my delicate and bloody life.

An elegant soliloquy.

51. Your job is daily and decisive: as long as the sun shines, you will be ardent; As long as life lasts, you will be alive.

Great passions can also be reflected in everyday life.

52. He went to the seaside, at midnight. I knew that God was there, and that the sand and you and the sea and me and the moon were God. And I adored it.

Description full of feeling.

53. I am interested in women. Furthermore, women are the ones who read the most. My protagonists are always women. I love them more, I admire them more, and they confide in me that they don’t share with other women.

About his appreciation for women in general.

54. Yes, I think in the abstract, that is something that literally keeps me up at night, despite the pills I take.

A way of reading reality based on abstract ideas.

55. I just don’t care about Cela’s ass. Whatever happened to his ass is his business.

One more example of his propensity for the irreverent.

56. It was winter; You arrived and it was summer. When the real summer comes, what will become of us?

Metaphors that talk about love and affection.

57. Who could hold, like a bridle, the peerless rainbow of your gaze from your light to my fallen blackness.

Another of Antonio Gala’s phrases full of romanticism.

58. The truth is that this country is run by a collection of fools.

A not very hopeful vision of the Spanish political panorama.

59. I would like to kick the theater to wake it up.

Complaints about the conformism and stagnation of this type of art.

60. I have a great capacity for admiration, surprise and curiosity, which are the three things that most define childhood.

Antonio Gala talks about several of his personal characteristics.

61. I do not aspire to anything, not even to be an usher at the Ministry of Culture, and I care very little about rulers.

About the type of motivations that move you.

62. May no judge declare my innocence, because, in this long-term process I will only seek the life sentence of your embrace.

Emphasizing the tragic character that love sometimes takes.

63. The woman’s is the house, where the man is a guest.

A way of seeing gender roles.

64. Rajoy always made me laugh, but now he makes me sad.

About who was president of the government of Spain.

65. Honest politicians get out of the way when suspicion falls on them.

Another of Gala’s opinions on politics.

66. How can I eat without you, without the pious custom of your wings that refresh the air and renew the light?

Another example of this playwright’s lyricism.

67. I am not a monarchist. But I understand the work that the King has done and I feel great personal sympathy for him.

This artist separates personal value from political value.

68. I love the word alharaca, it seems like the nickname of a slut. Look at her, here comes La Alharaca!

A sample of his irreverent sense of humor.

69. It is not about adding years to life, but about giving life to the years.

A defense of vitalism.

70. I would not like to think if I did not think that, deprived of your beauty, I would forget myself if I forgot you.

One of Antonio Gala’s most romantic phrases.