Quotes from Isabel Allende

I tend to see the similarities in people and not the differences.

Fear is like a black cavern that is terrifying. Once you enter the cavern and explore it, you realize that you can get out of it, go through it and get out of it.

We all have an unsuspected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to the test.

In terrible moments, in moments of revolution, of war or repression, of illness or death, people react with incredible strength.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate.

Most people feel younger than their age, but the culture values youth, success, beauty, productivity. There is no space in this culture for older people.

The first few months of my life of every year are in total retreat. I don't see anybody except my husband and my dog, I don't talk to anybody, and I just write.

I don't want an uneventful and safe life, I prefer an adventurous one.

I never try to convey a message, I just want to tell a story. Why that story in particular? I have no idea, but I have learned to surrender to the muse. I become obsessed with a theme or with certain stories; they haunt me for years, and finally, I write them.

We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged.

My mother didn't want me to be a feminist, a radical, political person, because she was scared. She wanted me to be protected and safe, but my life never was.

Giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.

Women have always been courageous... They are always fearless when protecting their children and in the last century they have been fearless in the fight for their rights.

I have written about Chile extensively, and therefore I have read many books on the subject, mostly for research.

Many fiction writers write for the critics or for themselves; they forget the common reader. I never do. I don't think journalism clashes with my fiction; on the contrary, it helps enormously.

The fact that you own a gun and shoot to defend your life is a very American way of thinking.

I was born in ancient times, at the end of the world, in a patriarchal Catholic and conservative family. No wonder that by age five I was a raging feminist - although the term had not reached Chile yet, so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me.

I get thousands of letters, and they give me a feeling of how each book is perceived. Often I think I have written about a certain theme, but by reading the letters or reviews, I realise that everybody sees the book differently.

All summer, I read fiction because you must read for the pleasure and beauty of it, and not only for research. I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes.

I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes.

The pain of losing my child was a cleansing experience. I had to throw overboard all excess baggage and keep only what is essential. Because of Paula, I don't cling to anything anymore. Now I like to give much more than to receive.

Every person is born with a talent, and happiness depends on discovering that talent in time.

Photographs deceive time, freezing it on a piece of cardboard where the soul is silent.

If you change the way you tell your own story, you can change the colour and create a life in technicolour.