Quotes from Isabel Allende

She intended to swallow the world and he lived crushed by reality.

She was considered timid and morose. Only in the country, her skin tanned by the sun and her belly full of ripe fruit, running through the fields with Pedro Tercero, was she smiling and happy. Her mother said that that was the real Blanca, and that the other one, the one back in the city, was a Blanca in hibernation.

I learned very quickly that when you emigrate, you lose the crutches that have been your support; you must begin from zero, because the past is erased with a single stroke and no one cares where you're from or what you did before.

I felt an unrelenting restlessness. It was the first time I had ever experienced jealousy, and that emotion clung to my skin day and night like a dark stain, a contamination I could not shed; it became so unbearable that when finally I rid myself of it, I was freed forever of the desire to possess another person or the temptation ever to belong to anyone.

We have to defend democracy, but remember that not everything is politics. Without science, industry, and technology, no progress is possible, and without music and art, there's no soul.

Every time I asked a question, that magnificent teacher, instead of giving the answer, showed me how to find it. She taught me to organise my thoughts, to do research, to read and listen, to seek alternatives, to resolve old problems with new solutions, to argue logically. Above all, she taught me not to believe anything blindly, to doubt, and to question even what seemed irrefutably true, such as man's superiority over woman, or one race or social class over another.

La vida es una tapiceria que se borda dia a dia con hilos de muchos colores, unos pesados y oscuros, otros delgados y luminosos, todos los hilos sirven.

I try desperately to conquer the transitory nature of my existence, to trap moments before they evenesce, to untangle the confusion of my past. Every instant disappears in a breath and immediately becomes the past; reality is ephemeral and changing, pure longing.

Memoria selectiva para recordar lo bueno, prudencia lógica para no arruinar el presente, y optimismo desafiante para encarar el futuro.

La besó en la mejillla lo más cerca posible de la boca, deseando con pasión permanecer a su lado eternamente para preservarla de las sombras. Olía a yerbas y tenía la piel fría. Supo que amarla era su destino inexorable.

After a few months without writing, months I've lived turned outward... I fear going deaf, not being able to hear the silence.

The two moments are much alike: birth and death are made of the same fabric.

How accommodating love is; it forgives everything.

He was not oppressed by a crowd because in the midst of all the hullabaloo he always found a quiet place for his soul.

Silencio antes de nacer, silencio después de la muerte, la vida es puro ruido entre dos insondables silencios.

Nothing strong can be built on a foundation of lies and omissions.

You only have what you give. It's by spending yourself that you become rich.

la edad, por sí sola, no hace a nadie mejor ni más sabio, sólo acentúa lo que cada uno ha sido siempre.

Hay mucha gente buena, Irina, pero es discreta. Los malos, en cambio, hacen mucho ruido, por eso se notan más.

Tenía la idea de que al poner nombre a los problemas, estos se materializan y ya no es posible ignorarlos; en cambio, si se mantienen en el limbo de las palabras no dichas, pueden desaparecer solos, con el transcurso del tiempo

I have the idea that we grandmothers are meant to play the part of protective witches; we must watch over younger women, children, community and also, why not? this mistreated planet, the victim of such unrelenting desecration.

La realidad no es solo como se percibe en la superficie, también tiene una dimensión mágica y, si a uno se le antoja, es legítimo exagerarla y ponerle color para que el tránsito por esta vida no resulte tan aburrido.

Vârsta în sine nu îi face pe oameni mai buni sau mai înÈ›elepÈ›i, ci doar înt?reÈ™te tr?s?turile pe care aceÈ™tia le-au avut dintotdeauna.

His lifetime was less than a fraction of a second in infinity. Or maybe he did not even exist; maybe human beings, the planets, everything in Creation were a dream...an illusion. He smiled with humility when he remembered...