Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Every self-respecting persuasive ploy must first appeal to curiosity, then to vanity, and lastly to kindness or remorse.

Sé que alberga en su corazón grandes esperanzas, pero que ninguna de ellas se ha cumplido, y sé que eso, sin que usted se dé cuenta, le está matando un poco cada día que pasa.

Those were the days when Barcelona newspapers were steeped in reports warning that people were being killed in the streets. Unions for hired gunmen were doing well. Life was still as worthless as ever, but death had never been so cheap.

Me sonrió con una melancolía que no se merecían sus años

Uno nunca miente a la gente; se mienten a ellos mismos. Un buen mentiroso les da a los bobos lo que quieren oír. Ese es el secreto.

the end of 1935, news reached Monsieur Roquefort that a new novel by Julián Carax, The Shadow of the Wind, had been published by a small firm in Paris.

Buenas. ¿Qué exhiben aquí? - improvisó Alicia. El individuo la absorbió con sus pupilas de lupa, claramente nada impresionado. -Exhibimos paciencia, señorita, y en ocasiones, asombro ante la osadía de la ignorancia. Esto es la Biblioteca Nacional.

Marriage and family are only what we make of them.

Going over all this in my mind, it occurred to me that perhaps the papier-mâché world that I accepted as real was only a stage setting. Much like the arrival of Spanish trains, in those stolen years you never knew when the end of childhood was due.

Era entonces cuando la gran silueta oscura aparecía a la puerta de la casa, un gran ángel con rostro de mármol que me miraba y sonreía como un lobo, desplegando sus alas negras sobre Blanca y envolviéndola en su abrazo.

Que se yo. La gente se complica la vida, como si no fuese suficientemente complicada

porque he aprendido que en este mundo la verdad solo hace daño y que Dios ama y ayuda a quien miente. No

La poesía se escribe con lágrimas, la novela con sangre y la historia con agua de borrajas"

y dejó correr el agua, probando la temperatura

He was going to marry a lady of good social standing

Well this story is about books. About books? About accursed books, about the man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of a novel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It's a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind (p.178)

No le dé vergüenza tener miedo. Tener miedo es señal de sentido común. Los únicos que no tienen miedo de nada son los tontos de remate.

mundo no se morirá de una bomba atómica como dicen los diarios, se morirá de risa, de banalidad, haciendo un chiste de todo, y además un chiste malo.

My father knew from the start what was going to happen,' Clara explained. 'He stayed close to his friends because he felt it was his duty. What killed him was his loyalty to people who, when their time came, betrayed him. Never trust anyone, Daniel, especially the people you admire. Those are the ones who will make you suffer the worst blows'. Phoenix paperback, 2005, p.19

Le interesa lo mismo que a usted. Le interesan los libros, la literatura, el olor de estos tesoros que tiene usted aquí y la promesa de romance y aventura de las novelas de a peseta. Le interesa espantar la soledad y no perder el tiempo en comprender que en este perro mundo nada vale un céntimo si no tenemos a alguien con quien compartirlo.

Marina me dijo una vez que solo recordamos lo que nunca sucedió. Pasaría una eternidad antes de que comprendiese aquellas palabras.

It's as old as that saying: tell me what you boast of and I'll tell you what you lack. Our daily bread. The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as excessively devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant and the feeble-minded as intellectual.

The memories we bury under mountains of silence are the ones that never stop haunting

One of the doctors who had worked for him in the castle twenty years ago always said that God takes pity on motherfuckers first.