Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

E' solo un mal di testa, Signor Sempere. Mi sta già passando. Sempere mi verso un bicchiere di acqua di Vichy. Tenga. Questa cura tutto, meno la stupidità, che è una epidemia sempre più diffusa.

Te has dado cuenta de que cuanto más inteligentes son los móviles, más tonta se vuelve la gente?

É curioso como julgamos os outros e não nos apercebemos do que há de miserável do nosso desdém a não ser quando nos faltam,a não ser quando no-los tiram.Tiram-no-los porque nunca foram nossos...

Sin más indicio de sus intenciones que una misteriosa sonrisa.

Pocas cosas engañan más que los recuerdos

The apartment was directly above the bookshop, a legacy from my grandfather that specialized in rare collectors' editions and secondhand books—an enchanted bazaar, which my father hoped would one day be mine. I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.

And along the way read the Bible from start to finish. It's one of the greatest stories ever told. Don't make the mistake of confusing the word of God with the missal industry that lives of it.

I don't think there is anything decent to save in the world, Fermín.' 'Even you don't believe that. The trouble is that you're afraid of finding out that there is.

Ya lo decía Unamuno: que inventen ellos, que nosotros opinaremos.

Cada libro tiene un alma

Miért nevezik inszomniának, mikor valójában a lelkiismeretrÅ'l beszelnek?

Nada mantiene mejor la memoria que el resentimiento.

Me juré que no volvería a verla, que no volvería a mencionar su nombre, o a recordar el tiempo que había perdido a su lado. Por alguna extraña razón, me sentí en paz.

The cinema began as an invention for entertaining masses.

Tutto è racconto (...). Quello che crediamo, quello che conosciamo, quello che ricordiamo e perfino quello che sogniamo. Tutto è racconto, narrazione, una sequenza di eventi e personaggi che comunicano un contenuto emotivo. Un atto di fede è un atto di accettazione, accettazione di una storia che viene raccontata. Accettiamo come vero solo ciò che può essere narrato.

Davvero non hai letto nessuno di questi libri?- gli domandò. -I libri sono noiosi- -I libri sono specchi; riflettono ciò che abbiamo dentro- >>

It's the truth . . .' I lied again. She held my gaze for a few moments, but those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them.

A stroke saw him off on All Souls' Night, with a Cuban cigar in his lips and a twenty-five-year-old on his lap. What a way to go.

destiny doesn't make house calls

The sight of bursting puberty is the best antidote to nostalgia, thought Alicia.

In the scene I had just witnessed, that stranger could have been any person of the night, a figure with no face and no name. In Carax's novel, that figure was the devil.

Las vidas sin significado pasan de largo como trenes que no paran en tu estación.

Dunces and blockheads live in a state of perpetual envy.

All good things must wait. There are yokels out there who think that if they touch a woman's behind and she doesn't complain, they've hooked her. Amateurs. The female's heart is a labyrinth of subtitles, too challenging fo the uncouth mind the male racketeer. If you really want to posses a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is to win her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft, wrapping which steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus.