Zafon Quotes

Our world will not die as a result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke of everything, and a lousy joke at that." Professor ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Sometimes, when the gods aren't looking and destiny loses its way, even good people get a taste of good luck in their lives. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It is one thing to believe in women, and another to believe what they say ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

There are people you remember and people you dream of. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Before we knew it, we were walking along the breakwater until the whole city, shining with silence, speak out at our feet like the greatest mirage in the universe, emerging from the pool of the harbor waters. We sat on the edge of the jetty to gaze at the sight.
This city is a sorceress, you know, Daniel? It gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Well, then, for what my opinion is worth, I'm sure you'll be an excellent father and husband. And since you don't believe in those things, you'll never take them for granted. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

There were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss, ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Those times, against all expectations, were turning out to be good times. Then he felt afraid, because he knew they couldn't last long and those stolen drops of happiness and peace would evaporate. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

That isn't love, it's a fever... At your age it's chemically impossible to tell the difference. Mother Nature brings on these tricks to repopulate the planet by injecting hormones and a raft of idiocies into young people's being so there's enough cannon fodder available for them to reproduce like rabbits and at the same time sacrifice themselves in the names of whatever is parroted by bankers, clerics, and revolutionary visionaries in dire need of idealists, imbeciles, and other plagues that will prevent the world from evolving and make sure it always stays the same. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Money is like any other virus: once it has rotted the soul of the person who houses it, it sets off in search of new blood. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In my schoolboy reveries, we were always two fugitives riding on the spine of a book, eager to escape into worlds of fiction and secondhand dreams. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Why is it that the less one has to say the more one says it in the most pompous and pedantic way possible? ... Is it to fool the world or just to fool themselves? ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Halfway through the afternoon the sun appeared from behind the blanket of clouds left by the storm. The shining streets were transformed into mirrors, on which pedestrians walked, reflecting the amber of the sky. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The most despicable humans are the ones who always feel virtuous and look down on the rest of the world. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I've always ignored the labels people put on things. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

We humans are willing to believe anything rather than the truth. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It's what I always say: if you want things to turn our well, you must put a woman in charge. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nothing important is learned; it is simply remembered. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Welcome to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Daniel. I could make out about a dozen human figures scattered among the library's corridors and platforms. Some of them turned to greet me from afar, and I recognized the faces of various colleagues of my father's, fellows of the secondhand-booksellers' guild. To my ten-year-old eyes, they looked like a brotherhood of alchemists in furtive study. My father knelt next to me and, with his eyes fixed on mine, addressed me in the hushed voice he reserved for promises and secrets. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Never trust girls who let themselves be touched right away. But even less those who need a priest for approval. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

He didn't know whether we created God in our own image or whether God created us without quite knowing what he was doing. He believed that God, or whatever brought us here, lives in each of our deeds, in each of our words, and manifests himself in all those things that show us to be more than mere figures of clay. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Man's meanness is a fuse in search of a flame. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The teachers tried everything, even pleading, but Tomas was in the habit of addressing them only in Latin, a language he spoke with papal fluency and in which he did not stammer. Sooner or later they all resigned in despair, fearing he might be possessed: he might be spouting demonic instructions in Aramaic at them, for all they knew. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Writing is essentially re-writing and re-writing everything to death, so I spend a lot of hours there in the studio trying to make the language work to paint each picture in the reader's mind and generally deploring how lousy my efforts turn out to be. Like most writers, I suppose. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The photograph showed a young couple smiling at the camera. The man didn't look much older than seventeen or eighteen, with light-coloured hair and delicate, aristocratic features. The woman may have been a bit younger, one or two years at the most. She had pale skin and a finely chiselled face framed by
short black hair. She looked drunk with happiness. The man had his arm round her waist, and she seemed to be whispering something to him in a teasing way. The image conveyed a warmth that drew a smile from me, as if I had recognized two old friends in those strangers. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Old age is the lubricant of belief. When death knocks at the door, skepticism flies out the window. A serious cardiovascular fright and a person will even believe in Little Red Riding Hood. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I am a curious creature and put my finger in as many cakes as I can: history, film, technology, etc. I'm also a freak for urban history, particularly Barcelona, Paris and New York. I know more weird stuff about 19th-century Manhattan than is probably healthy. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Under the warm light cast by the reading lamp, I was plunged into a new world of images and sensations peopled by characters who seemed as real to me as my surroundings. Page after page I let the spell of the story and its world take me over, until the breath of dawn touched my window and my tired eyes slid over the last page. I lay in the bluish half-light with the book on my chest and listened to the murmur of the sleeping city. My eyes began to close, but I resisted. I did not want to lose the story's spell or bid farewell to its characters just yet. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Setting aside the puppet shows, the only thing that matters is who will be ruling, who will have the keys to the cash register, and how they're going to split up other people's money among themselves. On their way to the booty they'll spruce everything up, which is badly needed. New Scoundrels will appear, new leaders, and a whole choir of jnnocents with no memory will come out into the streets, ready to believe whatever they want or need to believe. They'll follow whichever Pied Piper flatters them most and promises them some shotty paradise... This is what it is... with its highs and lows, and it's only as good as it gets, which is better than nothing. There are those who see it coming and go far away... And there are those of us who stay with our feet stuck in the mud, because anyhow we don't have anywhere better to go. But don't worry about the circus. We've now come to the clown acts, and the trapeze artists will take a while to arrive. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The same thing that had happened with the flowers was happening with my longing: once I held it in my hands, I didn't know where to put it. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Madmen always think it's the others who are mad. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

That day was turning out to be longer than The Brothers Karamazov. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A story has no beginning and no end, only points of entry. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Normal people bring children into the world; we novelists bring books. We are condemned to put our whole lives into them, even though they hardly ever thank us for it. We are condemned to die in their pages and sometimes even to let our books be the ones who, in the end, will take our lives. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Do you like mysteries?" I nodded. I think if she'd asked me whether I liked arsenic or cyanide on toast I would have given her the same answer. "Are ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I believe that nothing happens by chance. Deep down, things have their own secret plan, even though we don't understand it . ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

, listening to the storm outside as it left the city, knowing that I was going to lose her but also knowing that, for a few minutes, we had belonged to one another, and to nobody else. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

CLOUDS SPILLED DOWN FROM THE SKY AND swamped the streets with a hot mist that made the thermometers on the walls perspire. Halfway through ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I swim against the tide because I like to annoy. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

But I couldn't absorb the idea that death could actually walk by my side, with a human face and a heart that was poisoned with hatred. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

One has to make one's own mistakes, not other people's. Do what you have to do and come back soon. Or whenever you can. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Making money isn't hard in itself ... What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

He was truly a man of faith. He believed in his friends, in the truth of things, and in something to which he didn't dare put a name or a face because he said as priests that was our job. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Don't add on any years, you rascal. Life will see to that without your help. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don't stop at your station. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Got up to fetch a glass of water and, assuming I'd missed the train to sleep, I went up to the study, opened the drawer in my desk and pulled out the book I had rescued from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Is the sort that breaks a man's heart just walking ... ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Life flies by, especially the bit that's worth living. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Most of us mortals never get to know our real destiny; we're just trampled by it. By the time we raise our heads and see it moving off down the road, it's already too late, and we have to walk the rest of the way along the straight and narrow ditch the dreamers call maturity. Hope is no more than the belief that that moment hasn't yet come, that we might still manage to see our real destiny when it draws near and jump on board before the chance of being ourselves disappears forever, condemning us to live in emptiness, missing what should have been and never was. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

As I walked, I ran my fingers along the spines of hundreds of books. I let myself be imbued with the smell, with the light that filtered through the cracks or from the glass lanterns embedded in the wooden structure, floating among mirrors and shadows. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Perhaps she loved me, in her own way, as I loved her, in mine. But we didn't know one another. Perhaps because I never allowed her to know me, or I never took any steps towards getting to know her. We spent our lives like two strangers who see each other every single day and greet one another out of politeness. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hope is cruel and has no conscience. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds it's way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory ... ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Stupidity is almost always in the eye of the beholder. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

God bless, and don't hesitate never to come back here again. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Envy is a blind man who wants to pull out your eyes. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Julian spoke with the clear, unequivocal lucidity of madmen who have escaped the hypocrisy of having to abide by a reality that makes no sense. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The incompetent always present thmeselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as devout, usurers as benefactors, the small minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant, and teh feeble-minded as intellectual. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

When you're young, you see the world as it should be, and when you're old you start to see it as it really is. You'll be cured eventually. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

He was a very private person, and sometimes it seemed to me that he was no longer interested in the world or in other people... I got the feeling that Julián was living in the past, locked in his memories. Julián lived within himself, for his books and inside them - a comfortable prison of his own design."

"You say this as if you envied him."

"There are worse prisons than words. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Whether we realise it or not, most of us define ourselves by opposing rather than by favouring something or someone. To put it another way, it is easier to react than to act. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Look, Daniel, at my age either you begin to see things for what they are or you're pretty much done for. Only three or four things are worth living for; the rest is manure ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one's heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

People might not agree with me, but I think a woman should have a feminine shape, something you can get your hands on. You, on the other hand, look like you might be partial to the skinny type, a point of view I fully respect, don't misunderstand me. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

As readers, we want not only a strong story, but also characters we can relate to, characters that feel real. We have to find something of ourselves in them. Each character, even those only there to serve the mechanics of the plot, should have a number of layers. The entire world you are stepping into as a reader must feel real. It must have resonance, you must be able to touch the light; smell the smells. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I would have preferred someone else to have been in charge of rescuing this story, but once again life has taught me that my role is to be a witness, not the leading actor. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Blue skies of Barcelona. I took a taxi to the school, where I expected to be ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nothing is fair. The most one can hope is for things to be logical. Justice is a rare illness in a world that is otherwise a picture of health. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Delving into the past had unveiled a cruel lesson - that in the book of life it is perhaps best not to turn back pages; it was a path on which, whatever direction we took, we'd never be able to choose our own destiny. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A piece of literature can be many things but first of all it must capture its audience. You need to seduce people, entice them into a world of beauty and horror, light and shadow, of passion, of romance, of mystery. That's the magic of it. Beyond that, of course, you can open a dialogue about the ideas which interest you, but first of all you absolutely must get inside people's minds. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Well, this is a story about books."
About books?"
About accursed books, about a man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of anovel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It's a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind."
You talk like the jacket blurb of a Victorian novel, Daniel."
That's probably because I work in a bookshop and I've seen too many. But this is a true story. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

If you don't trust a novelist, who are you going to trust? ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Sometimes, in difficult circumstances, one can confuse compassion with love. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Mention the gothic, and many readers will probably picture gloomy castles and an assortment of sinister Victoriana. However, the truth is that the gothic genre has continued to flourish and evolve since the days of Bram Stoker, producing some of its most interesting and accomplished examples in the 20th century - in literature, film and beyond. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I've always thought that anyone who needs to join a herd so badly must be a bit of a sheep himself. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table, your bottom on the chair and you start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That's called inspiration. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Women have an infallible instinct for knowing when a man has fallen madly in love with them, especially when the male in question is both a complete dunce and a minor. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

All the geography, trigonometry, and arithmetic in the world are useless unless you learn to think for yourself. No school teaches you that. It's not on the curriculum. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody's best friend. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

She'll live. I've already seen her return from among the dead once before, and those who learn the trick never forget it. I speak from experience. To return from the dead is a bit like riding a bike, or unfastening a girl's bra with a single hand. It's all a question of getting the knack. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Wine turns the wise man into a fool and the fool into a wise man. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I turned to discover the faint smile of the bookseller's
niece. Her voice was pure crystal, transparent and so fragile I feared that her words would break if I interrupted them. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

We exist as long as somebody remembers us. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It's curious how easy it is to tell a piece of paper what you don't dare say to someone's face. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

We're all whores, sooner or later. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

-Do you think it's dirty money?
-All money is dirty. If it were clean nobody would want it. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I'm not sure whether to thank you or report you to the police, he said at last. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

She was seventeen, her entire life shining on her lips. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

For some reason, I never felt the need to have kids. My wife feels the same. We don't feel a void. I don't think they would give my life meaning. I do think of the books as my children, though. Whatever is inside of me, I put into my books. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Patience is the mother of all virtues and the godmother of madness ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The bookseller handed me the book and winked.
"Have a good look at it, little dumpling. I don't want you coming back to me saying I've switched it, eh?"

"I trust you," I said.

"Stuff and nonsense. The last guy who said that to me (a tourist who was convinced that Hemingway had invented the fabada stew during the San Fermín bull run) bought a copy of Hamlet signed by Shakespeare in ballpoint, imagine that. So keep your eyes peeled. In the book business, you can't even trust the index. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

They teach us that human beings learn and absorb ideas and concepts through narrative, through stories, not through lessons or theoretical speeches. This is what any religious texts teach us. They're all tales about characters who must confront life and overcome obstacles, figures setting off on a journey of spiritual enrichment through exploits and revelations. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A Gentleman's agreement cannot be broken without breaking the person who has entered into it. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Routine is the housekeeper of inspiration ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

You have more zeal than good taste, Martín. The disease afflicting you has a name, and that is Grand Guignol: it does to drama what syphilis does to your privates. Getting it might be pleasurable, but from then on it's all downhill. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Fermin shook his head. 'And is that why you believe that if you manage to unravel the mystery of Julian Carax and rescue him from oblivion, the face of your mother will come back to you?'
I looked at him. There was no irony or judgment in his expression. For a moment Fermin Romero de Torres seemed to me the wisest and most lucid man in the universe. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

There are worse prisons than words. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It's the student who makes the teacher, not the other way around. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

She described people, scenes, and objects she had never seen with the detail and precision of a Flemish master. Her words evoked textures and echoes, the color of voices, the rhythm of footsteps. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon