One loves truly only once in a lifetime, Julian, even if one isn’t aware of it. Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes by Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes From Carlos Ruiz Zafon It is part of our nature to survive. Faith is an instinctive response to aspects of existence that we cannot explain by any other means - be it the moral void we perceive in the universe, the certainty of death, the mystery of the origin of things, the meaning of our own lives or the absence of meaning. Carlos Ruiz Zafon certainty-of-death void mean The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich. Carlos Ruiz Zafon rich want way They (fables) teach us that human beings learn and absorb ideas and concepts through narrative, through stories, not through lessons or theoretical speeches. Carlos Ruiz Zafon lessons stories ideas I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time. Carlos Ruiz Zafon father book firsts Don Basilio was a forbidding-looking man with a bushy mustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency. Carlos Ruiz Zafon mustache suffering men Perhaps for that very reason, I adored her all the more, because of the eternal human stupidity of pursuing those who hurt us the most. Carlos Ruiz Zafon stupidity hurt reason In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom. Carlos Ruiz Zafon boredom news towns Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day. Carlos Ruiz Zafon reading book art If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is win over her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft wrapping that steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus. Carlos Ruiz Zafon winning sweet thinking And here I was thinking you were a bit slow, what with so much asking and not knowing anything. Carlos Ruiz Zafon knowing stupid thinking 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 age doors believe Everything is a tale, Martin. What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated. Carlos Ruiz Zafon dream character believe Martin, at my age, eroticism is reduced to enjoying caramel custard and looking at widows' necks.' - Senor Sempere. Carlos Ruiz Zafon widows necks age Our world will not die as the result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, or making a joke of everything, and a lousy joke at that. Carlos Ruiz Zafon bombs laughter our-world I decided that my existence would be one of books and silence. Carlos Ruiz Zafon silence would-be book Poetry is written with tears, fiction with blood, and history with invisible ink. Carlos Ruiz Zafon tears blood fiction I'm interested in everything. I don't see why Borges can't work along with Neil Gaiman, or Stephen King can't be mixed with Balzac. It's just storytelling; it's different ways of using codes and images and words and sounds. Carlos Ruiz Zafon different kings sound Silence makes idiots seem wise even for a minute. Carlos Ruiz Zafon idiot silence wise Human beings believe just as they breathe - in order to survive. Carlos Ruiz Zafon breathe order believe All interpretation or observation of reality is necessarily fiction. In this case, the problem is that man is a moral animal abandoned in an amoral universe and condemned to a finite existence with no other purpose than to perpetuate the natural cycle of the species. It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for a human being. We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake. Carlos Ruiz Zafon dream animal men
