Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Like the good ape he is, man is a social animal, characterized by cronyism, nepotism, corruption, and gossip. That's the intrinsic blueprint for our 'ethical behavior,' he argued. It's pure biology.

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.

Don't be bashful; we're among gentlemen. It's a known fact that we men are the missing link between the pirate and the pig.

Normally, the more talent one has, the more one doubts it. And vice versa.

The truth is what hurts.

It's difficult to find a good conversationalist.

Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived it and dreamed with it.

Hasta entonces para mí las lecturas eran una obligación, una especie de multa a pagar a maestros y tutores sin saber muy bien para qué. No conocía el placer de leer, de explorar puertas que se te abren en el alma, de abandonarse a la imaginación, a la belleza y al misterio de la ficción y del lenguaje.

We're all whores, sooner or later.

El dinero es como cualquier otro virus: una vez que pudre el alma del que lo alberga, parte en busca de sangre fresca.

I hope you find the path that I missed.

Milyen érdekes, hogy az ember oly könnyen kiönti a szívét egy darab papírnak, miközben szemtÅ'l szemben megszólalni sem mer.

The more you hide the truth, the quicker it finds you - Max, The Prince of Midst

No sé ahora dónde leí una vez que en el fondo nunca hemos sido el de antes, que sólo recordmos lo que nunca sucedió...

A gentleman's agreement cannot be broken because it breaks the person who has signed it.

El destino suele estar a la vuelta de la esquina. (…) Pero lo que no hace es visitas a domicilio. Hay que ir por él.

Myths and legends, either about divinities or the formation and history of peoples and races, began to look like pictures on a jigsaw puzzle, slightly different from one another but always built with the same pieces, though not in the same order.

gente que no tiene vida siempre se tiene que meter en la de los dem

All interpretation or observation of reality is necessarily fiction.

An intellectual is usually someone who isn't exactly distinguished by his intellect . . . He claims that label to compensate for his inadequacies. It's as old as that saying, 'Tell me what you boast of and I'll tell you what you lack.

Nobody succeeds without failing first.

When we feel like victims, all our actions and beliefs are legitimised, however questionable they may be. Our opponents, or simply our neighbours, stop sharing common ground with us and become our enemies. We stop being aggressors and become defenders. The envy, greed or resentment that motivates us becomes sanctified, because we tell ourselves we're acting in self-defence. Evil, menace, those are always the preserve of the other.

What's wrong with him? I could tell you it's the heart, but what is really killing him is loneliness. Memories are worse than bullets.

I left the apartment without even bothering to close the door behind me. Once outside, I faced a world of buildings and faces that seemed strange and distant. I started to walk aimlessly, oblivious to the cold and the rain-filled wind that was starting to lash the town with the breath of a curse.