45 quotes
Spanish writer (1964-2020)
“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”
"Making money isn't hard in itself... What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to."
on Life
"Making money isn't hard in itself,' he complained. 'What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to."
"Few things leave a deeper mark on the reader, than the first book that finds its way to his heart."
on Writing
"The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever."
on Love
"Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it."
"Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything."
on Fear
"Books hold no passports. There's only one true literary tradition: the human."
"A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise."
"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."
"Life has enough torturers as it is, without you going around moonlighting as a Grand Inquisitor against yourself."
"I've learnt that solitude is sometimes a path that leads to peace"
"A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept."
on Truth
"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."
"Time has taught me not to lose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either."
on Time
"I can't die yet, doctor. Not yet. I have things to do. Afterwords I'll have a whole lifetime in which to die."
"We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake."
on Dreams
"I believe that nothing happens by chance. Deep down, things have their secret plan, even though we don't understand it."
on Philosophy
"Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice."
"Few things are more deceptive than memories."
"There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite."
