Quotes from Isabel Allende

I'd realized that in writing happiness is useless-without suffering there is no story.

It's much easier to be generous with a full belly than an empty one," they said. I've never believed that, though, because I've seen that both kindness and cruelty exist everywhere.

She treated him with the casual kindness usually reserved for other people's pets.

She had been born to cradle other people's children, wear their hand-me-down clothing, eat their leftovers, live on borrowed happiness and grief, grow old beneath other people's roofs, die one day in her miserable little room in the far courtyard in a bed that did not belong to her, and be buried in a common grave in the public cemetery.

Todos tenemos demonios en los rincones oscuros del alma, pero si los sacamos a la luz, los demonios se achican, se debilitan, se callan y al fin nos dejan en paz.

Lanzarme con otro libro es tan grave como enamorarme, un impulso alocado que exige dedicación fanática. Con cada uno, como ante un nuevo amor, me pregunto si me alcanzarán las fuerzas para escribirlo y si acaso semejante proyecto vale la pena: hay demasiadas páginas inútiles y demasiados amoríos frustrados.

No existe luz sin sombra, tal como no existe dicha sin dolor.

Those who seek the truth run the risk of finding it.

Las fotografías engañan al tiempo, suspendiéndolo en un trozo de cartón donde el alma queda bocabajo, decía

Tenía un pie en la ilusión obligada y otro en la realidad secreta

El ardor de ese beso no los abandonó en muchos días y llenó de fantasmas delicados sus noches, dejando su recuerdo en la piel, como una quemadura. La alegría de ese encuentro los transportaba levitando por la calle, los impulsaba a reír sin causa aparente, los despertaba sobresaltados en la mitad de un sueño. Se tocaban los labios con las puntas de los dedos y evocaban exactamente la forma de la boca del otro.

Seated by her side in the narrow cabin, pressing cold compresses to her forehead and holding her while she vomited, he felt profoundly happy....

She has a fixation on love. Strong trouble. The girl left her window open one clear night and it crawled into her body while she was asleep. There's no spell can cure it.

I have seen these persons speak unthinkingly, not realizing that to speak is also to be. Word and gesture are man's thought. We should not speak without reason.

De la quietud nace la inspiración y del movimiento surge la creatividad.

Es cosa de tiempo, ojo y corazón

Barrabas came to us by the sea.

If what you want is the effect of painting, then paint, Aurora. If what you want is truth, learn to use your camera, he would say again and again

This is what women want: to be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved.

Nu suntem b?trâni pentru c? am împlinit È™aptezeci. Începem s? îmb?trânim din clipa naÈ™terii, ne schimb?m zi dup? zi, viaÈ›a e o curgere continu?. Evolu?m. Singura deosebire este c? acum suntem ceva mai aproape de moarte. ?i ce e r?u în asta? Dragostea È™i prietenia nu îmb?trânesc.

Writing, when all is said and done, is an attempt to understand one's own circumstance and to clarify the confusion of existence, including insecurities that do not torment normal people, only chronic nonconformists, many of whom end up as writers after having failed in other undertakings.

She entered the place of her dreams along a much traveled path and returned treading very carefully in order not to shatter the tenuous visions against the harsh light of consciousness.

Lo puedo leer en tus ojos, vienes de una noche de amor.

El exiliado mira hacia el pasado, lamiéndose las heridas; el inmigrante mira hacia el futuro, dispuesto a aprovechar las oportunidades a su alcance.