Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Truth is always safe from people.

Mother Nature is the meanest of bitches, that's the sad truth

Todo forma parte de algo que no podemos entender, pero que nos posee.

Quasi tutto è possibile quando si ha un vero amico.

Page and page I let the spell of the story and its world take me over, until the breath of dawn touched my window and my tired eyes slid over the last page. I lay in the bluish half-light with the book on my chest and listened to the murmur of the sleeping city. My eyes began to close, but I resisted. I did not want to lose the story's spell or bid farewell to its characters yet.

El corazón de la hembra es un laberinto de sutilezas que desafía la mente cerril del varón trapacero. Si quiere usted de verdad poseer a una mujer, tiene que pensar como ella, y lo primero es ganarse su alma. El resto, el dulce envoltorio mullido que le pierde a uno el sentido y la virtud, viene por añadidura.

In the shop we buy & sell them, but in truth books have no owner.

?itava se Barcelona prostirala meni pod nogama i želio sam vjerovati da ?e mi kad otvorim te svoje nove prozore njezine ulice u sumrak šaputati na uho pri?e i tajne kako bih ih uhvatio na papir i ispri?ao onima koji ih žele slušati.

is the sort that breaks a man's heart just walking...

Vidal had his exuberant and stately tower in the most elegant and elevated part of Pedralbes, surrounded by hills, trees, and fairy-tale skies. I would have my sinister tower rising above the oldest, darkest streets of the city, surrounded by the miasmas and the shadows of that necropolis which poets and murderers had once called the Rose of Fire.

Geduld ist die Mutter der Wissenschaft, entgegnete sie. Und die Patin des Wahnsinns.

If you don't know where you're going, you won't get anywhere

No te pongas años de más, sabandijilla, que ya te los pondrá la vida

Ein guter Freund hat einmal zu mir gesagt, die Probleme seien wie Kakerlaken. Immer wenn er ernst sein sollte, verfiel er in einen scherzhaften Ton. Wenn man sie ans Licht holt, erschrecken sie und machen sich auf und davon.

This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. 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 and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down it's pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

It was a magnificent day; the skies were electric blue, and a crystal breeze carried the cool scent of autumn and the sea.

Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table and your bottom on the chair and start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That's called inspiration.

Si algún día tiene usted una hija, bendición que no se la deseo yo a nadie, porque es ley de vida que tarde o temprano le romperá a uno el corazón, en fin, a lo que iba, que si algún día tiene usted una hija empezará sin darse cuenta a dividir a los hombres en dos clases: los que usted sospecha que se acuestan con ella y los que no.

All I wish is for you to be happy, that everything you aspire to achieve may come true and that, although you may forget me in the course of time, one day you may finally understand how much I loved you.

Hay dos cosas en la vida que no puedes elegir, Ben. La primera son tus enemigos. La segunda, tu familia. A veces la diferencia es difícil de apreciar

Avevo sempre pensato che le stazioni ferroviarie fossero tra i pochi lughi magici rimasti al mondo. I fantasmi dei ricordi e degli addii vi si mescolavano con l'inizio di centinaia di viaggi per destinazioni lontane, senza ritorno.

Her face was lined with bitterness and her eyes looked glazed, tired of hating and weeping in solitude.

Un buen amigo me dijo una vez que los problemas son como las cucarachas. Si los sacas a la luz, se asustan y se van

El hombre, como buen simio, es animal social y en él priva el amiguismo, el nepotismo, el chanchullo y el comadreo como pauta intrínseca de conducta ética —argumentaba—. Es pura biología.