Spanish novelist (1964- )
A piece of literature can be many things but first of all it must capture its audience. You need to seduce people, entice them into a world of beauty and horror, light and shadow, of passion, of romance, of mystery. That's the magic of it. Beyond that, of course, you can open a dialogue about the ideas which interest you, but first of all you absolutely must get inside people's minds.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Carlos Ruiz Zafon's love letter to literature", New Zealand Listener, Mar. 14, 2013
Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
As readers, we want not only a strong story, but also characters we can relate to, characters that feel real. We have to find something of ourselves in them. Each character, even those only there to serve the mechanics of the plot, should have a number of layers. The entire world you are stepping into as a reader must feel real. It must have resonance, you must be able to touch the light; smell the smells.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"The Shadow Maker", The Telegraph
Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
Human beings believe just as they breathe -- in order to survive.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Sometimes we think people are like lottery tickets, that they're there to make our most absurd dreams come true.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
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.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Independent, Jun. 24, 2012
I would like to save all books, those that are banned, those that are burned, or forgotten with contempt by the mandarins who want to tell us what is good and what is bad. Every book has a soul ... and I believe every book is worth saving from either bigotry or oblivion.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"An interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Book Browse
The greatest multiplex in the universe is inside your mind, and the only ticket you need is a good, well-written novel.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"An interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Book Browse
Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
In this world the only opinion that holds court is prejudice.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
The thing is that my first novel, which was basically a mystery adventure story, won quite an important award in Spain for young adult fiction, and because of this it became a very successful book, and right now it's some sort of a standard title, it's read widely in many high schools in Spain, so I think, in a way, I was a victim of my own success in the field of young adult fiction, because it was never my own natural register. I never intended to write that kind of fiction, but I became very successful at it.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"An Interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafon", official website
It's curious how easy it is to tell a piece of paper what you don't dare say to someone's face.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
There are two things that I cannot live without: music and books. Caffeine isn't dignified enough to qualify.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Meet the Writers: Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Barnes & Noble
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
The Angel's Game
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
"The Shadow Maker", The Telegraph, Nov. 27, 2005
Nobody knows much about women, not even Freud, not even women themselves. But it's like electricity: you don't have to know how it works to get a shock on the fingers.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind