Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you," answered Julián.

You have more zeal than good taste, Martín. The disease afflicting you has a name, and that is Grand Guignol : it does to drama what syphilis does to your privates. Getting it might be pleasurable, but from then on it's all downhill.

What the flower vendor interpreted as 'pretty nasty' was only the intensity that comes to those who, better late than never, have found a purpose in life and are pursuing it to make up for lost time.

Silence makes even idiots seem wise for a minute.

I guessed she must be, at most, twenty, but there was something about her manner that made me think she could be ageless. She seemed trapped in that state of perpetual youth reserved for mannequins in shop windows.

Tell me Ignatius B., who has broken your heart and left you so angry?

You should only become a writer if the possibility of not becoming one would kill you.

Hay cosas que sólo pueden verse entre tinieblas

Las gentes con el alma pequeña siempre tratan de empequeñecer a los demás

Las esperanzas las guardan las personas, pero el destino lo reparte el diablo.

La mayoría de los mortales nunca llegamos a conocer nuestro verdadero destino; simplemente somos atropellados por él. Para cuando levantamos la cabeza y lo vemos alejarse por la carretera ya es tarde, y el resto del camino lo tenemos que hacer por la cuneta de que aquello que los soñadores llaman madurez.

as long as we are being remembered, we remain alive

Te mi je no?i Mijail rekao da on misli da nam život svima priskrbi nekoliko rijetkih trenutaka ?iste sre?e. Katkad je to samo nekoliko dana ili tjedana. Katkad godine. Sve ovisi o našoj sudbini. Uspomena na te trenutke prati nas zauvijek i pretvara se u zemlju uspomena u koju se pokušavamo vratiti ostatak života, bezuspješno.

El modo más eficaz de hacer inofensivos a los pobres es enseñarles a querer imitar a los ricos.

Certainty is reassuring, but one can only learn by doubting.

Had I paused to reflect, I would have understood that my devotion to Clara brought me no more than suffering. Perhaps for that very reason, I adored her all the more, because of the eternal human stupidity of pursing those who hurt us the most.

People eyed one another suspiciously, and the streets smelled of a silence that knotted your stomach.

Jacinta nunca le dijo a Penélope que la quería. El aya sabía que quien quiere de verdad quiere en silencio, con hechos y nunca con palabras.

Tell me what you boast of and I´ll tell you what you lack!

In the haunted shade of the Ateneo, her hands wrote a curse on my skin that was to hound me for years.

Go to hell, I whispered. The night darker than ever, leaned in against the window panes.

The dead never go to their own funeral.

I believe that nothing happens by chance. Deep down, things have their secret plan, even though we don't understand it.

El destino suele estar a la vuelta de la esquina. Como si fuese un chorizo, una furcia o un vendedor de lotería: sus tres encarnaciones más socorridas. Pero lo que no hace es visitas a domicilio. Hay que ir a por é