The rain was still crashing down, angrily machine-gunning the large windows; it poured through the gutters up in the tower and funneled along the flat roof, sounding like footsteps on the ceiling. Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes by Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes From Carlos Ruiz Zafon Theory is the practice of the impotent. Carlos Ruiz Zafon theory practice 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 illness justice world I quarreled with every word, every phrase and expression, every image and letter as if they were the last I was ever going to write. I wrote and rewrote every line as if my life depended on it, and then rewrote it again. Carlos Ruiz Zafon phrases expression writing I hoped my absence made them happy or at least made them forget that they weren't happy and never will be. Carlos Ruiz Zafon absence made forget We all give up great expectations along the way. Carlos Ruiz Zafon giving-up expectations way One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one's heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver. Carlos Ruiz Zafon greed heart sweet A big success can be very confusing if it comes too early in your life. When you are young, you are more vulnerable to vanity. I was 36 when I wrote The Shadow of the Wind and the success of it was very gradual. If you have this kind of success straight off, I think there is a danger you can become an idiot, because you don't have a perspective. It hasn't changed me a lot. I fly first class now. But those things don't change you. If I am pretentious, I was before, I haven't changed. The only thing is, I am less anxious now. Carlos Ruiz Zafon vanity wind thinking That book taught me that by reading, I could live more intensely. It could give me back the sight I had lost. For that reason alone, a book that didn't matter to anyone changed my life. Carlos Ruiz Zafon reading sight book The world's very small when you don't have anywhere to go. Carlos Ruiz Zafon world Those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them. Carlos Ruiz Zafon temptation wanted believe The wider the author's arsenal of tools and the better technically equipped the storyteller is, the better the tale will be. Carlos Ruiz Zafon tools literature writing I wandered off, walking through streets that seemed emptier than ever, thinking that if I didn't stop, if I kept on walking, I wouldn't notice that the world I thought I knew was no longer there. Carlos Ruiz Zafon streets world thinking We seem to live in a world where forgetting and oblivion are an industry in themselves and very, very few people are remotely interested or aware of their own recent history, much less their neighbors'. I tend to think we are what we remember, what we know. The less we remember, the less we know about ourselves, the less we are. (Interview with Three Monkeys Online, October 2008) Carlos Ruiz Zafon three people thinking 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 shadow-of-the-wind owners book Childhood devotions make unfaithful and fickle lovers. Carlos Ruiz Zafon fickle childhood lovers 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 clay our-words knowing Blaming TV as an abstract entity is nonsensical. It's our hand on the remote. There's a world out there outside the tube. Carlos Ruiz Zafon hands television world I've always thought that we are what we remember, and the less we remember, the less we are. Carlos Ruiz Zafon remember 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 women views thinking You have to seduce the reader, manipulate their mind and heart, listen to the music of language. I sometimes think of prose as music, in terms of its rhythms and dynamics, the way you compress and expand the attention of a reader over a sentence, the way the tempo pushes you towards an image or sensation. We want an intense experience, so that we can forget ourselves when we enter the world of the book. When you are reading, the physical object of the book should disappear from your hands. Carlos Ruiz Zafon reading writing book