Considered the "poet of simple things" with a style marked by irony, depth, and technical perfection, he worked as a journalist for most of his life.

He translated over one hundred and thirty books of world literature, including in Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, and Words and Blood, by Giovanni Papini.

In 1966, to commemorate his sixty years of age, he published "Poetics Anthology", with sixty poems, organized by Rubem Braga and Paulo Mendes Campos, and for this reason the poet was acclaimed by the Brazilian Academy of Letters by Meyer and Manuel Augusto Bandeira, who recited his own poem "Quintanares", in honor of his fellow gaucho.

In 1976, after turning seventy years old, Quintana was awarded from the state of Rio Grande do Sul government the Medal Negrinho do Pastoreio.

[3] The poet tried three times for a chair at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, but in none of the occasions he was elected, falling short of twenty votes required to qualify.