There are two things that I cannot live without: music and books. Caffeine isn't dignified enough to qualify. Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes by Carlos Ruiz Zafon More Quotes From Carlos Ruiz Zafon I've always ignored the labels people put on things. Carlos Ruiz Zafon things always labels people I realised that I had always been writing things that other people wanted me to write and not what I really wanted to write, so I felt like I was losing my way. Carlos Ruiz Zafon me losing people way I always had this childhood image in the back of my mind of this fantastic place where all the things I liked came from; Orson Welles, jazz, all that stuff. Los Angeles is one of those places where somebodies become nobodies and nobodies become somebody. Carlos Ruiz Zafon place back childhood mind In Los Angeles you get the sense sometimes that there's a mysterious patrol at night: when the streets are empty and everyone's asleep, they go erasing the past. It's like a bad Ray Bradbury story - 'The Memory Erasers'. Carlos Ruiz Zafon memory you night past 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 weird i-am technology history My work as a screenwriter has influenced my fiction. Writing screenplays forces you to consider many elements regarding story structure and other narrative devices that can be used to enhance the infinitely more complex demands of a novel. Carlos Ruiz Zafon story you work writing I'm a voracious reader, and I like to explore all sorts of writing without prejudice and without paying any attention to labels, conventions or silly critical fads. Carlos Ruiz Zafon like prejudice writing attention Shirley Jackson's writings are a must for aficionados of the gothic and of good literature. Carlos Ruiz Zafon must good gothic literature The success of 'The Shadow of the Wind' made me very happy, but it did not change my perspective or the way I was. Carlos Ruiz Zafon me shadow change success With 'The Angel's Game', there was a lot of pressure from the expectations - expectations from the book industry and from readers; it's natural. Carlos Ruiz Zafon game angel pressure book