Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I had never heard of the title or the author, but I didn't care. The decision had been taken. I took the book down with great care and leafed through the pages, letting them flutter. Once liberated from its prison on the shelf, it shed a cloud of golden dust. Pleased with my choice I tucked it under my arm and retraced my steps through the labyrinth, a smile on my lips.

Und so kam es, dass der Wein, der die Menschen ehrlich macht, wenn sie es am wenigsten brauchen, und ihnen Mut gibt, wenn sie besser feige blieben, Cervantes dazu brachte, ihnen die Geschichte in der Geschichte zu erzählen, das, was Mörder und Verrückte die Wahrheit nennen.

Chi ama appartenere a un gregge deve avere qualcosa della pecora.

art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.

Mr. Fortuny lied to you. Julián didn't die in 1919." "Say that again?" "Julián lived in Paris until at least 1935, and then he returned to Barcelona.

yet there are days when I feel that a certain brightness is tentatively returning to Barcelona, as if between us all we'd driven it out but it had forgiven us in the end.

Criei-me entre livros,fazendo amigos invisíveis em páginas que se desfaziam em pó e cujo cheiro ainda conservo nas mãos.

I, who was never even sure what the time was, nodded with the conviction of the ignorant.

Non sono mai andato fuori strada nella vita. Il problema in questo nostro amato paese sono le strade, non chi le percorre.

A felnÅ'ttség a csalódás eredménye. Ahogy múlik az élet, az embernek le kell mondania ifjúsága reményeirÅ'l, álmairól, vágyairól, s egyre inkább úgy érzi, hogy áldozatul esett a világnak és a többieknek.

The more you try to hide from the truth, the quicker it finds you

we still repeat that walk to the breakwater at dawn, where we solve the world's problems.

El miedo es la pólvora y el odio es la mecha

The ménage à trois was completed by their secretary, Herminia, who followed them around like a loyal dog wherever they went and whom we all nicknamed Lady Venom because, although she looked as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, she was as trustworthy as a rattlesnake in heat.

I said Julián passed away. In Paris. Soon after he got there. He would have done better joining the army.

Questo luogo è un mistero, Daniel, un santuario. Ogni libro, ogni volume che vedi possiede un'anima, l'anima di chi lo ha scritto e di coloro che lo hanno letto, di chi ha vissuto e di chi ha sognato grazie a esso. Ogni volta che un libro cambia proprietario, ogni volta che un nuovo sguardo ne sfiora le pagine, il suo spirito acquista forza.

Lo fácil que era perderle la antipatía a quien se tiene por enemigo en cuanto deja de comportarse como tal.

podemos encontrar en él lo que ya llevamos dentro, que al leer ponemos la mente y el alma, y que ésos son bienes

Não se envergonhe de ter medo.Ter medo é sinal de senso comum.As únicas pessoas que não têm medo são os doidos varridos.

FERMÍN CAME TO WORK BORNE ON the wings of Cupid, smiling and whistling boleros. In any other

The only revenge left for you then will be to steal from life the pleasure of firm and passionate flesh--a pleasure that evaporates faster than good intentions and is the nearest thing to heaven you will find in this stinking world where everything decays, beginning with beauty and ending with memory.

Who said anything about hospitals? That's where people die. Hospitals are statistically the most dangerous places in the world.

Yo no soy de ningún bando —repuso Fermín—. Es más, las banderas me parecen trapos de colores que huelen a rancio y me basta ver a cualquiera que se envuelva en ellas y se le llene la boca de himnos, escudos y discursos para que me entren cagarrinas. Siempre he pensado que el que siente mucho apego a un rebaño es que tiene algo de borrego.

CLOUDS SPILLED DOWN FROM THE SKY AND swamped the streets with a hot mist that made the thermometers on the walls perspire. Halfway through