Vargas Llosa makes emotional case for the written word in Nobel speech

Fighting back tears and pausing for ovations, Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa delivered his lecture to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Tuesday, part of the build-up to his accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature on Friday.

The speech of the 74-year-old, who on Monday was bruised in a fall, took an emotional turn when he declared his love for his wife of 45 years, Patricia, "the girl with the upturned nose." The reference was enough to bring the writer to tears. And not just him: in the audience, Patricia, their children, relatives, grandchildren, agent and translator all cried with the author of The Green House.

Vargas Llosa began his 48-minute address by explaining what reading has meant in his life. "The same as writing, to read is to protest against the insufficiencies of life," he said, before taking a more political turn with a condemnation of nationalism of "every form."

"Ours will always be an unfinished story; we have to keep dreaming, reading and writing"

On his own political journey, which has taken him from the left side of the spectrum to an often misunderstood liberal position in defense of freedom and the downtrodden,Vargas Llosa said: "In my youth I was a Marxist and I believed that socialism would bethe remedy for social injustices. My disappointment and my journey toward the democrat that I am today was brought about by episodes such as the conversion of the Cuban Revolution to the authoritarian and vertical model of the USSR."

"Ours will always be, by fate, an unfinished story," he wrapped up. "That's why we have to keep dreaming, reading and writing, the most efficient way we have found of alleviating our transitory condition, of defeating the anxiety of time and of making the impossible possible." Cue ovation. Cue hugs. Cue tears. Cue the end of a highly emotional speech.