Quotes from Isabel Allende

tallados con hacha, las tejuelas «de cabeza circular», muy

Pregunta del periodista al Dalái Lama: ¿Puede recordar sus vidas pasadas? Respuesta: A mi edad me cuesta recordar lo que pasó ayer.

The technique of "disappearing" ideological enemies, which several Latin American dictatorships were so strongly committed to during the seventies and eighties, had been practiced in Chile nearly a century earlier. None of which takes away from the fact that our democracy was the most solid, and the oldest, on the continent.

They're really good people. Quakers are always to be found where they're most needed.

After the Spanish Civil War, refugees came to Chile escaping the defeat. In 1939, the poet Pablo Neruda, at the direction of the Chilean government, chartered a ship, the Winnipeg, which sailed from Marseilles carrying a cargo of intellectuals, writers, artists, physicians, engineers, and fine craftsmen.

I was fifteen when I returned to Santiago, disoriented from having lived several years outside the country and from having lost my ties with my old friends and my cousins.

discovered flamenco dancing, which

El futuro no existe, (...), sólo contamos con el pasado para extraer experiencia y conocimiento, y el presente, que es apenas un chispazo, puesto que en el mismo instante se convierte en ayer.

Y una vez en tierra, la chica ya no era su responsabilidad. La idea de desprenderse definitivamente de ella le producía una mezcla de tremendo alivio y de incomprensible ansiedad.

Aymaras—"children

Se le ocurrió que al salir de la oficina de su hermano tendría que valerse solo y aterrizaría de narices en su propio nivel de incompetencia.

Si pudo ser ministro de Educación sin haber terminado la escuela, igual puede ser ministro de Agricultura sin haber visto en su vida una vaca entera —comentó el senador Trueba.

Bájalo de la cama, Lucía —dijo, acercándose con la intención de hacerlo. —Ni se te ocurra, Richard. Marcelo es muy sentimental, se ofendería. —Dormir con animales es peligroso. —¿Para qué? —La salud, para empezar. Quién sabe qué enfermedades puede… —Lo malo para la salud es lavarse las manos a cada rato, como haces tú. Buenas noches, Richard. —Como quieras. Buenas noches. Hora y

All husbands are boring, John. No woman with an ounce of sense gets married to be entertained, she marries to be maintained.

Foreigners rarely catch on to how this shocking class system operates because social interchange is polite and friendly at every level.

I fell in love with my country because of the stories my grandfather told me and because of our travels together through the south. He taught me history and geography, showed me maps, made me read Chilean writers, corrected my grammar and handwriting. As a teacher, he was short on patience but long on severity; my errors made him red with anger, but if he was content with my work he would reward me with a wedge of Camembert cheese

There's a difference between being old and being ancient. It doesn't have to do with age, but physical and mental health," Cathy explained. "Those who are old can remain independent, but those who are ancient need help and supervision; there comes a moment when they're like children again.

The argument went on and on, and they became locked in a confused rhetorical exchange that left them exhausted, each accusing the other of being more stubborn than a mule. But in the end they kissed each other good night and both were left with the feeling that the other was an extraordinary human being.

el extraño poder curativo de las palabras, de compartir el dolor y comprobar que otros también tienen su

He had the awkward tenderness of someone who has never been loved and is forced to improvise

and on the date stipulated by law the left calmly came to power. And on that date the right began to stockpile hatred.

But do you know what I'm most grateful for? Love. That has marked me more than anything else. I was incredibly lucky to have Roser. She'll always be the love of my life. Thanks to her I have Marcel. Being a father has also been essential for me; it's allowed me to keep faith in what's best in the human condition.

vidas se parecen y los sentimientos son idénticos.

They all agreed that under communism they had been just as poor, but at least there was food and security, whereas independence had brought them only ruin and abandonment.