Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them. Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes by Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes From Carlos Ruiz Zafon Over time, loneliness gets inside you and doesn't go away. Carlos Ruiz Zafon going-away loneliness somethings can only be seen in the shadows Carlos Ruiz Zafon shadow The air seemed poisoned with fear and hatred. People eyed on another suspiciously, and the streets smelled of a silence that knotted your stomach. Carlos Ruiz Zafon silence air people I don't care what happens in 100 years. I won't be around. Carlos Ruiz Zafon care happens years None of us are what we once were. Carlos Ruiz Zafon Nobody knows much about women, not even Freud, not even women themselves. But it's like electricity: you don't need to know how it works to get a shock on the fingers. Carlos Ruiz Zafon electricity shock needs It might have been that notion, or just chance, or its more flamboyant relative, destiny. Carlos Ruiz Zafon destiny chance might I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot. Carlos Ruiz Zafon ocean memories book The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction. Carlos Ruiz Zafon character way thinking He (Intellectuals) claims that label to compensate for his own inadequacies. It's as old as that saying: tell me what you boast of and I'll tell you what you lack. Our daily bread. The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as excessively devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant and the feeble-minded as intellectual. Carlos Ruiz Zafon intellectual humble experts He would have liked to know that somebody wanted to keep him alive, that someone remembered him. He used to say that we exist as long as somebody remembers us. Carlos Ruiz Zafon alive remember long Death does that: it makes everyone feel sentimental. When we stand in front of a coffin, we all see only what is good or what we want to see. Carlos Ruiz Zafon coffins doe want The words with which a child's heart is poisoned, whether through malice or through ignorance, remain branded in his memory, and sooner or later they burn his soul. Carlos Ruiz Zafon heart memories children I tried to swallow his nonsense without choking. Carlos Ruiz Zafon nonsense choke The most despicable humans are the ones who always feel virtuous and look down on the rest of the world. Carlos Ruiz Zafon virtuous looks world His soul is in his stories. I once asked him who inspired him to create his characters, and his answer was no one. That all his characters were himself. Carlos Ruiz Zafon soul stories character She wore an ivory-white dress and held the world in her eyes. I barely remember the priest's words or the faces of the guests, full of hope, who filled the church on that March morning. All that remains in my memory is the touch of her lips and, when I half opened my eyes, the secret oath I carried with me and would remember all the days of my life. Carlos Ruiz Zafon eye morning memories I'm not talking to anyone, I'm delivering a monologue. It's the inebriated man's prerogative. Carlos Ruiz Zafon monologues talking men It's the student who makes the teacher, not the other way around. Carlos Ruiz Zafon students teacher way Los Angeles is one of those places where somebodies become nobodies and nobodies become somebody. Carlos Ruiz Zafon los-angeles