Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Tiene usted mala cara - dictaminó. - Indigestión. - ¿De qué? - De realidad.

God gives us life, but the world's landlord is the devil....

what sort of technology is this that can send a man to the moon but can't put a piece of bread on every human being's table?" "Perhaps the problem doesn't lie in the technology, but in those who decide how to make use of it," I suggested.

Y cómo me ves tú a mí? —Como un misterio. —Ese es el cumplido más raro que me han hecho nunca. —No es un cumplido. Es una amenaza. —¿Y eso? —Los misterios hay que resolverlos, averiguar qué esconden. —A lo mejor te decepcionas al ver lo que hay dentro. —A lo mejor me sorprendo. Y tú también.

Sometimes I think that Darwin made a mistake and that in fact man is descended from the pig, because eight out of every ten members of the human race are swine, and as crooked as a hog's tail.

H]e lay awake, dreading the dawn when he would have to say good-bye to the small universe he had built for himself over the years.

These scars are the least important. The worst scars remain inside.

There are yokels out there who think that if they touch a woman's behind and she doesn't complain, they've hooked her. Amateurs. The female heart is a labryinth of subtleties, too challenging for the uncouth mind of the male racketeer. If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is to win over her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft wrapping that steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus.

Delving into the past had unveiled a cruel lesson - that in the book of life it is perhaps best not to turn back pages; it was a path on which, whatever direction we took, we'd never be able to choose our own destiny.

It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for human beings. We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.

Stories have no beginning and no end, only doors through which one may enter them.

I hoped my absence made them happy or at least made them forget that they weren't happy and never will be.

El tiempo me ha enseñado a no perder las esperanzas, pero a no confiar demasiado en ellas.

I leaned over to cover him with the blanket he had been promising to give away to charity for years, and I kissed his forehead, as if by doing so I could protect him from the invisible threads that kept him away from me, from that tiny apartment, and from my memories. As if I believed that with that kiss I could deceive time and convince it to pass us by, to return some other day, some other life.

It is difficult to hate an idea. That requires a certain intellectual discipline and a slightly obsessive, sick mind. There aren't too many of those. It's much easier to hate someone with a recognizable face whom we can blame for everything that makes us feel uncomfortable. It doesn't have to be an individual character. It could be a nation, a race, a group. . .anything.

Sabe lo mejor de los corazones rotos? Que sólo pueden romperse de verdad una vez. Lo demás son rasguños.

Do you know what religion is, Martin, my friend? -I can barely remember Lord's Prayer. -A beautiful and well-crafted prayer. Poetry aside, a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends,myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values , and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.

Army, Marriage, the Church, and Baking: the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Fermin Romero de Torres - The Shadow of the Wind.

It was a well-known fact that the richness of buttery foods led to the moral ruin and confusion of the intellect.

One can convert only a sinner, never a saint.

The fact is that nothing is more difficult to believe than the truth; conversely, nothing seduces like the power of lies, the greater the better. It's only natural, and you will have to find the right balance. Having said that, let me add that this particular old woman hasn't been collecting only years; she has also collected stories, and none sadder or more terrible than the one she's about to tell you. You have been at the heart of this story without knowing it until today ...

You end up becoming what you see in the eyes of those you love.

Nunca de fíes de nadie, especialmente de la gente a la que admiras. Ésos son los que te pegarán las peores puñaladas.

Life has enough torturers as it is, without you going around moonlighting as a Grand Inquisitor against yourself.