Quotes from Carlos Ruiz Zafon

As lembranças são piores do que as balas

The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich. That is the poison with which capitalism blinds

Hazme lo que quieras —susurró. Tenía diecisiete años y la vida en los labios.

Ah, intellectuals. And you wanted me to sign one up. What is it that the less one has to say the more one says it, and in the most pompous and pedantic way possible?" Corelli asked. "Is it to fool the world or to fool themselves?" [ Carlos Ruiz Zafón ? The Angel's Game ]

got up to fetch a glass of water and, assuming I'd missed the train to sleep, I went up to the study, opened the drawer in my desk and pulled out the book I had rescued from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

Barcelona is a haunted house, Vargas. What happens is that you tourists never think of looking behind the curtain.

todo eso es diletancia. El matrimonio y la familia no son más que lo que nosotros hacemos de ellos. Sin eso, no son más que un pesebre de hipocresías. Morralla y palabrería. Pero si hay amor de verdad, del que no se habla ni se declara a los cuatro vientos, del que se nota y se demuestra...

Novels, as everyone knew, were for women and for people who had nothing better to do.

Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them," said my father.

El cazurro y el zoquete viven en un estado de perenne envidia.

Friends? Till death us do part.

De eso nada. ¿Se acuerda usted de lo que me dijo una vez? ¿Que el destino no hace visitas a domicilio, que hay que ir a por él? —Tengo que confesar que lo saqué de un libro de Carax. Sonaba bonito.

There are a lot of morons out there who only go by appearances

The night belonged to gaslight, to the shadows of narrow side streets shattered by the flash of gunshots and the blue trace of burned gunpowder. Those were years when one grew up fast, and with childhood slipping out of their hands, many children already had the look of old men.

You don't know what life is until you undress a woman the first time. A button at a time, like peeling a hot sweet potato on a winter's night.

perhaps because I'm unable to understand beyond my own prejudices or because there is nothing else to understand and the crux of the matter lies in simply believing or not believing, without stopping to wonder why.

A volte ci sono prezzi che non si possono pagare col denaro.

La luz vaporosa de las farolas de las Ramblas - como el primer chupetón a un caramelo Sugus- siempre le había parecido una de esas cosas por las que vale la pena vivir un día más.

En la biblioteca fue donde cambió mi vida.

solucionados el tema de la alimentación y la vivienda, la primera necesidad que se plantea el ser humano es la búsqueda de motivos y recursos con los que sentirse diferente y superior a sus semejantes

Si finisce per diventare ciò che si vede negli occhi di quelli che si desiderano.

Si la vida no era un sueño era al menos una pantomima donde el cruel absurdo del relato fluía siempre entre bambalinas, y no había entre cielo y suelo venganza mayor ni más efectiva que al esculpir la belleza y el ingenio a golpe de palabras para encontrar el sentido en el sinsentido de las cosas.

I have a condition that prompts me to want to know the truth at all times. You can't imagine the amount of distress this ailment brings to those of us who could otherwise live so content in a state of blissful ignorance.

Tako, u tajnovitosti, porodica Fortunj pusti da pro?u godine, u?utkuju?i svoja srca i svoje duše, do trenutka kad, od tolikog ?utanja, zaboraviše re?i za izražavanje svojih pravih ose?anja i pretvoriše se u strance koji su živeli zajedno pod istim krovom, jednim od tolikih u beskrajnom gradu.