"I think writers rush in where everybody is very frightened to tread"
About this Quote
Writers, Cabrera Infante implies, are not braver by nature; they’re simply less willing to honor the social contract of silence. The line flips the old proverb about fools rushing in where angels fear to tread, swapping out “fools” for “writers” and “angels” for “everybody.” That tweak is the point: fear isn’t rarefied or noble here, it’s массовый, ordinary, civic. And the writer’s trespass isn’t heroic so much as occupational. If everyone is scared, the writer’s job is to walk straight into the room anyway, notebook in hand, and describe what people have agreed not to name.
Infante’s context makes the sentence bite. A Cuban novelist who lived through revolution and exile, he knew how quickly public fear becomes policy: censorship, informants, the careful editing of private speech. Under those conditions, “tread” isn’t metaphorical; it suggests borders, checkpoints, and the invisible lines citizens learn to avoid. Writers “rush in” because literature is one of the few tools that can smuggle complexity past official slogans. Fiction lets you tell the truth slant, not to evade responsibility, but to survive long enough to get it on the page.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to everyone else: fear is contagious, but so is self-censorship. Infante casts the writer as the person who breaks the spell, not with grand speeches, but with attention - to taboo desires, compromised loyalties, the jokes people only tell at home. In an atmosphere of intimidation, that kind of noticing becomes a form of dissent.
Infante’s context makes the sentence bite. A Cuban novelist who lived through revolution and exile, he knew how quickly public fear becomes policy: censorship, informants, the careful editing of private speech. Under those conditions, “tread” isn’t metaphorical; it suggests borders, checkpoints, and the invisible lines citizens learn to avoid. Writers “rush in” because literature is one of the few tools that can smuggle complexity past official slogans. Fiction lets you tell the truth slant, not to evade responsibility, but to survive long enough to get it on the page.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to everyone else: fear is contagious, but so is self-censorship. Infante casts the writer as the person who breaks the spell, not with grand speeches, but with attention - to taboo desires, compromised loyalties, the jokes people only tell at home. In an atmosphere of intimidation, that kind of noticing becomes a form of dissent.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Guillermo
Add to List
