Quotes from Isabel Allende

Youth is not a period in life but a state of mind.

The first lie of fiction is that the author gives some order to the chaos of life: chronological order, or whatever order the author chooses.

I've been a story-teller all my life but I realized it only recently.

I feel that my life and therefore my writing accept the possibility of all the mystery. Everything we don't know; everything that can possibly happen.

The names of persons and living creatures demand respect, because when we speak to them we touch their heart and become a part of thier life force.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.

I have been a woman for 46 years and I only recently realized I can't change it and I like it.

I want to have an epic life. I want to tell my life with big adjectives. I want to forget all the grays in between, and remember the highlights and the dark moments.

At my age days dissolve like salt in water; the day's gone and I don't even know what I've done with the hours.

I have a very acute sense of place and time, so all of my stories are rooted in a place and a time.

You are my angel and my damnation; in your presence I reach divine ecstasy and in your absence I descent to hell.

Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don't expect trees to change, you love them as they are.

When you make an omelet, as when you make love, affection counts for more than technique.

I have been a foreigner all my life, first as a daughter of diplomats, then as a political refugee and now as an immigrant in the U.S. I have had to leave everything behind and start anew several times, and I have lost most of my extended family.

If I had to choose between a relative and a good story, I would take the story.

I remember my childhood as a horrible time. My mother says that nothing so horrible ever happened to me as the things that I remember.

Today's girls are tomorrow's women - and leaders.

I write a letter to my mother every day, because in that letter, I write down my day. And if I don't write it down, then tomorrow I will forget it and it's gone.

I am an American citizen and it is my home now. I like the U.S.A., which is not a place too many people have liked since Bush. The U.S. has a young population, and everything can change within a year.

I like historical fiction. I fell in love with New Orleans the first time I visited it. And I wanted to place a story in New Orleans.

We are too connected. There's noise in our heads all the time.

It's going to go away because we all need silence. We all need time to reflect and think. I am not at all pessimistic about this.

If I write something, I fear it will happen, and if I love too much, I fear I will lose that person; nevertheless, I cannot stop writing or loving.

Having a point to start is important. You know that when you decide to write something it's like a commitment. It's like falling in love.