Quotes from Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Everyone gets the devil he deserves.

Because God and the devil could be one and the same thing, and everybody understood it in his own way.

What about the future?" "We'll talk about the future when it gets here.

No era el hombre más honesto ni el más piadoso, pero era un hombre valiente.

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. And when I want to know something, I look it up in books--their memory never fails

Becoming a book collector is like joining a religion: it's for life.

the problem with words is that once spoken, they cannot find their way back to the speaker alone.

Nadie debería irse sin dejar una Troya ardiendo a sus espaldas.

Films are for everyone, collective, generous, with children cheering when the cavalry arrives. And they're even better on TV: two can watch and comment. But your books are selfish. Solitary. Some of them can't even be read, they fall to bits if you open them. A person who's interested only in books doesn't need other people, and that frightens me

She loves you, loathes you, treats you well, then ill. Like a leech or a surgeon's knife, she's double-edged: sometimes she'll cure, but sometimes she will kill.

The world is full of banks and rivers running between them, of men and women crossing bridges and fords, unaware of the consequences, not looking back or beneath their feet, and with no loose change for the boatman.

Of all the universal lies she accepted unquestioningly, the happy ending was the most absurd. The hero and heroine lived happily ever after, and the ending seemed indisputable, definitive. No questions asked about how long love or happiness lasts in that 'forever' that can be divided into lifetimes, years, months. Even days

You've just mentioned the price that has to be paid…Pride, freedom…Knowledge. Whether at the beginning or at the end, you have to pay for everything. Even courage, don't you think? And don't you think a lot of courage is needed to fight God?

Los libros son puertas que te llevan a la calle, decía Patricia. Con ellos aprendes, te educas, viajas, sueñas, imaginas, vives otras vidas y multiplicas la tuya por mil.

Desconfíen siempre vuestras mercedes de quien es lector de un solo libro.

Whenever I got any money, I invested it in books. When my savings dwindled, I got rid of everything else—pictures, furniture, china. I think you understand what it is to be a passionate collector of books…

Es agradable ser feliz, pensó. Y saberlo mientras lo eres.

Later, with time, I learned that although all men are capable of good and evil, the worst among them are those who, when they commit evil, do so by shielding themselves in the authority of others, in their subordination, or in the excuse of following orders. And even worse are those who believe they are justified by their God.

he looked around at the books on the walls, at their dark, worn spines, and he seemed to hear a strange, distant murmur coming from them. each of the closed books was a door, and behind it stirred shadows, voices, sounds, heading toward him from a deep, dark place.

L]ife is like an expensive restaurant where, sooner or later, someone always hands you the bill, which is not to say that you should deny the joy and pleasure afforded by the dishes already eaten.

He did not want to think, but it was inevitable that he would.

El hombre..., cree ser el amante de una mujer, cuando en realidad es sólo su testigo.

You can make a text mean anything, especially if it's old and full of ambiguities.

El heroísmo ajeno siempre conmueve una barbaridad.