Paulo Coelho
writer, novelist, blogger, actor, composer, poet lawyer, science fiction writer, lyricist, songwriter, researcher
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All Quotes by Paulo Coelho
“MySpace is my wife... Facebook is my mistress.”
“In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“I'm not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive--I'll find love again.”
“Collective madness is called sanity ..”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality - it connects you to reality.”
“I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.”
“What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It's not my business whether people like or dislike it.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“But if we are talking in terms of making progress in life, we must understand that "good enough" is very different from "best.”
“Dreams are the language of God.”
“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”
“Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die. For that reason and only for that reason, I have a profound respect for the human race, and I believe that its future is going to be much better than its present. Even knowing that their days are numbered and that everything will end when they least expect it, people make of their lives a battle that is worthy of a being with eternal life. What people regard as vanity-leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten- I regard as the highest expression of human dignity.”
“The wise are wise only because they love.”
“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”
“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”
“Terror, terror, terror. Life was a reign o terror in the shadow of the guillotine.”
“The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.”
“There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”
“As an author, I should be defending ‘intellectual property’, but I’m not. Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I’ve ever written!”
“We warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.”
“I ask myself: are defeats necessary? Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for a dream, we have no experience and make mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“If you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.”
“I told you that your dream was a difficult one. It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.”
“At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”
“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.... The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.”
“Life attracts life.”
“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.”
“He had worked for an entire year to make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute, was becoming less important. Maybe cause that wasn't really his dream.”
“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day.”
“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise," said the seer. "If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”
“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage”
“The desert takes our dreams away from us, and they don't always return. We know that, and we are used to it. Those who don't return become a part of the clouds, a part of the animals that hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They become part of everything... They become the Soul of the World.”
“I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.”
“Don't think about what you've left behind, the alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "Everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever."”
“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”
“However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.”
“There is only one way to learn … It's through action.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“The wise men understood that this natural world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom. That's what I mean by action.”
“Never miss an opportunity to show your love, especially to those close to you, because we are always at our most cautious with them for fear of being hurt.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.”
“It's true that everything has its Personal Legend, but one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new Personal Legend, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.”
“Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. … It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.”
“Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.”
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
“The parents always insisted on telling their child that their secret friends didn't exist — perhaps because they had forgotten that they too had spoken to their angel at one time. Or, who knows, perhaps they thought they lived in a world where there was no longer any place for angels. Disenchanted, the angels had returned to God's side, knowing that they could no longer impose their presence.”
“Perhaps they needn't even believe — it was enough that they needed angels, and the angels would return gladly.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“We must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Seek to live. Remembrance is for the old.”
“Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks.”
“Lovers need to know how to lose themselves and then how to find themselves again.”
“The boat is safer anchored at the port; but that’s not the aim of boats.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. For when those walls come down, then love takes over, and it no longer matters what is possible or impossible; it doesn't even matter whether we can keep the loved one at our side. To love is to lose control.”
“There's nothing deeper than love. In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the princesses kiss princes, and the princes turn into frogs.”
“Life takes us by surprise and orders us to move toward the unknown — even when we don't want to and when we think we don't need to.”
“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.”
“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.”
“Even if loving meant leaving, or solitude, or sorrow, love was worth every penny of its price.”
“The energy of hatred won't get you anywhere; but the energy of forgiveness, which reveals itself through love, will transform your life in a positive way.”
“I am going to sit here with you by the river. If you go home to sleep, I will sleep in front of your house. And if you go away, I will follow you — until you tell me to go away. Then I'll leave. But I have to love you for the rest of my life.”
“Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“A warrior of the light never confuses tension with anxiety.”
“On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had — at last! — arrived.”
“When she opened her eyes, Veronika did not think "this must be heaven". Heaven would never use a fluorescent tube to light a room, and the pain — which started a fraction of a second later — was typical of the Earth. Ah, that Earth pain — unique, unmistakable.”
“I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“I'll tell everyone that the children are my reason for living, when in reality my life is their reason for living.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Veronika brought her interior monologue to a close and made a promise to herself: she would not leave Villete alive. It was best to put an end to everything now, while she was still brave and healthy enough to die.”
“Look me in the eye and never forget what I'm about to tell you. There are only two prohibitions, one according to man's law, the other according to God's. Never force a sexual relationship on anyone, because that is considered to be rape. And never have sexual relations with children, because that is the worst of all sins. Apart from that, you're free. There's always someone who wants exactly what you want.”
“The great problem with poisoning by Bitterness was that the passions — hatred, love, despair, enthusiasm, curiosity — also ceased to manifest themselves. After a while, the embittered person felt no desire at all. They lacked the will either to live or to die, that was the problem.”
“You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?”
“You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.”
“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”
“A warrior of the Light is never in a hurry.”
“I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life.”
“Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.”
“In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel. It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.”
“Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they're not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or — such is the pleasure they experience — they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them.”
“I learned something recently: our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives...”
“No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“You want to know if the heart of a man or a woman can contain enough love for more than one person? … I think it's perfectly possible as long as one of those people doesn’t turn into … a Zahir.”
“If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.”
“In my world, everything is possible and everything is relative.”
“Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.”
“Stop being who you were and become who you are.”
“It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory”
“A brush with death always helps us to live our lives better.”
“All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.”
“That’s the problem, we do get used to things.”
“Closing The Cycle”
“That is how I would have acted before my accident, but now my personal history had become unimportant. It had stopped being history and was once more becoming a legend, a search, an adventure, a journey into and away from myself. I was once more in a time which the things around me were changing and that is how I wanted it to be for the rest of my days.”
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“All my life I've learned to suffer in silence.”
“What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.”
“Love simply is. That is the testament of Athena or Sherine or Hagia Sofia — love is. No definitions. Love and don't ask too many questions. Just love.”
“Try to find pleasure in the speed that you're not used to. Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside of you. But when all is said and done, you're the one who must decide how you handle it.”
“Love always triumphs over what we call death. That’s why there’s no need to grieve for our loved ones, because they continue to be loved and remain by our side.”
“Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.”
“Life moves very fast. It rushes from Heaven to Hell in a matter of seconds.”
“When we venture in that unfamiliar sea, we trust blindly in those who guide us, believing that they know more than we do.”
“When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.”
“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”
“Then the voice - which identified itself as the prince of this world, the only being who really knows what happens on Earth - began to show him the people around him on the beach. The wonderful father who was busy packing things up and helping his children put on some warm clothes and who would love to have an affair with his secretary, but was terrified on his wife's response. His wife who would like to work and have her independence, but who was terrified of her husband's response. The children who behave themselves because they were terrified of being punished. The girl who was reading a book all on her own beneath the sunshade, pretending she didn't care, but inside was terrified of spending the rest of her life alone. The boy running around with a tennis racuqet , terrified of having to live up to his parents' expectations. The waiter serving tropical drinks to the rich customers and terrified that he could be sacket at any moment. The young girl who wanted to be a dance, but who was studying law instead because she was terrified of what the neighbours might say. The old man who didn't smoke or drink and said he felt much better for it, when in truth it was the terror of death what whispered in his ears like the wind. The married couple who ran by, splashing through the surf, with a smile on their face but with a terror in their hearts telling them that they would soon be old, boring and useless. The man with the suntan who swept up in his launch in front of everybody and waved and smiled, but was terrified because he could lose all his money from one moment to the next. The hotel owner, watching the whole idyllic scene from his office, trying to keep everyone happy and cheerful, urging his accountants to ever greater vigilance, and terrified because he knew that however honest he was government officials would still find mistakes in his accounts if they wanted to.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“What hurts us is what heals us”
“Tears are words that need to be written.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Sometimes the best of gods gift's arrive by the shattering of all the window panes.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.”
“But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which”
“Scars speak more loudly than the sword that caused them.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.”
“Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age.”
“God only allows us to see such things when he wants something to change”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
“When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple.”
“I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.”
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.”
“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.”
“Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.”
“No, I never saw an angel, but it is irrelevant whether I saw one or not. I feel their presence around me.”
“Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly”
“The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other.”
“We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.”
“Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.”
“I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.”
“However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.”
“I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.”
“We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.”
“The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality - it connects you to reality.”
“I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“I am talking to you, but the moment I am talking to you, the universe is being created and destroyed.”
“Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.”
“I've done everything I wanted to do, even if I have had to pay a very high price - which has been the case most of the time.”
“Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.”
“Jesus lived a life that was full of joy and contradictions and fights, you know? If they were to paint a picture of Jesus without contradictions, the gospels would be fake, but the contradictions are a sign of authenticity.”
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.”
“Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.”
“I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.”
“Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one 'dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.”
“Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.”
“I'm not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.”
“The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.”
“There is an afterlife. I am convinced of this.”
“MySpace is an addiction.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.”
“Give time time.”
“I'm not a person that socializes very well.”
“I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.”
“About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don't believe in it. It's something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.”
“Still, being fragile creatures, humans always try to hide from themselves the certainty that they will die. They do not see that it is death itself that motivates them to do the best things in their lives. They are afraid to step into the dark, afraid of the unknown, and their only way of conquering that fear is to ignore the fact that their days are numbered. They do not see that with an awareness of death, they would be able to be even more daring, to go much further in their daily conquests, because then they would have nothing to lose- for death itself is inevitable.”
“Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.”
“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say.”
“Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.”
“People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they're much more open.”
“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”
“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.”
“Happiness is just another of the tricks that our genetic system plays on us to carry out its only role, which is the survival of the species.”
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
“Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.”
“Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.”
“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”
“No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes.”
“The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight.”
“Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.”
“Maktub" (It is written.)”
“you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: 'The devil is in the detail.' Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.”
“Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.”
“The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes.”
“Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.”
“Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it's how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“We are always trying to convert people to a belief in our own explanation of the universe. We think that the more people there are who believe as we do, the more certain it will be that what we believe is the truth. But it doesn't work that way at all.”
“When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”
“What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.”
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Music for me, it demands full concentration.”
“Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“I am 100 per cent Virgo, stubborn, over-organised, slightly abstracted from the rest of the world.”
“You're always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.”
“I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset - tears are words waiting to be written.”
“What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I'm someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.”
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.”
“Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.”
“Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age.”
“Once I found this possibility to use Twitter and Facebook and my blog to connect to my readers, I'm going to use it, to connect to them and to share thoughts that I cannot use in the book.”
“Writing is a solitary experience. I'm extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It's so intimate, I can't even share it with my wife.”
“The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.”
“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”
“All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.”
“I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: 'Oh my God, what a blessing.' Then you realise it's important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe.”
“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those who decide to die?”
“Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.”
“Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.”
“However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?”
“The only thing that relaxes me is archery. That's why I have to have apartments with gardens.”
“With all due respect, the Mona Lisa is overrated.”
“I think that, with age, people come to realize that death is inevitable. And we need to learn to face it with serenity, wisdom and resignation. Death often frees us from a lot of senseless sufferings.”
“I have spent every New Year's Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It's a place with meaning for me.”
“I can't consciously explain how people feel after reading my books. All is too personal.”
“I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.”
“Go and get your things,' he said. 'Dreams mean work.”
“My readers - and I get 400 emails for a day, my readers normally they say, well, you understand me, and I answer, you do understand me also. We are in the same level.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“When you write an article about anything, trolls use the comments to attack. They feel frustrated - but haters are losers. It's not good to feed this aspect. It's more intelligent to be constructive.”
“I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.”
“Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love.”
“It's not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
“It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book.”
“I'm modern because I make the difficult seem easy, and so I can communicate with the whole world.”
“Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.”
“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”
“I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.”
“Writing is a solitary experience. I'm extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It's so intimate, I can't even share it with my wife.”
“I am a Catholic.”
“I had this dream to become a writer since I was a teenager.”
“I never say I am a guru.”
“I ask myself: Are Defeats necessary ?”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Déjà vu is more than just that fleeting moment of surprise, instantly forgotten because we never bother with things that make no sense. It show that time doesn't pass. It's a leap into something we have already experienced and that is being repeated.”
“When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It's not my business whether people like or dislike it.”
“I want to continue being crazy; living my life the way I dream it, and not the way the other people want it to be.”
“I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution - they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.”
“Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.”
“Today, writers want to impress other writers.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“I tweet in the morning and the evening. To write 12 hours a day, there is a moment when you're really tired. It's my relaxing time.”
“I don't set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It's like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.”
“I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.”
“Happiness is just another of the tricks that our genetic system plays on us to carry out its only role, which is the survival of the species.”
“You should treat a muse like a fairy.”
“We have been moving along at such a fast pace that we no longer know what we are doing. Now we have to wait until our soul catches up with us.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“I don't go to parties in general.”
“I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.”
“The major religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, they deny somehow that God has a feminine face. However, if you go to the holy texts, you see there is this feminine presence.”
“I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.”
“They say that in the second before our death, each of us understands the real reason for our existence, and out of that moment, heaven or hell is born.”
“I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.”
“Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“It's very difficult to read a book on your computer.”
“I hate to be smart.”
“When I'm dancing, I'm not thinking about anything. I am here. I am totally there. You know? And the feeling is a sensation of being away from myself. My soul dances with the angels, and my body dances with my wife.”
“Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God.”
“Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.”
“I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.”
“I'm first and foremost a writer. I followed my personal legend, my childhood dream of becoming a writer, but I can't say why I'm one.”
“So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case.”
“My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul.”
“Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it's how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.”
“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”
“Everything for me is sacred, beginning with earth, but also going to things made by man.”
“My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that's it. I don't tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.”
“Physical elegance, which is what I am talking about here, comes from the body. This is no superficial matter, but rather the way that man found to honour the way he places his two feet on the ground.”
“I was arrested three times and tortured once.”
“Twitter is my bar. I sit at the counter and listen to the conversations, starting others, feeling the atmosphere.”
“In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.”
“I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.”
“I don't try to control my days.”
“This may sound a little bit idealistic, but when I go to my blog, my Facebook page, my Twitter account, I talk to different people from all over the world, and you see how it's easy to establish a dialogue.”