Spanish novelist (1964- )
I was very bored at school. I found it very easy and slow and grey. My teachers didn't really know how to handle me, because I was very sarcastic. I was over-confident, arrogant, a typical youngest child. I went through periods of withdrawing into myself and school psychologists tried to figure me out, work out why I didn't fit in. I found that irritating, too.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"The Shadow Maker", The Telegraph, Nov. 27, 2005
In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
attributed, Identifying, Treating, and Preventing Childhood Trauma in Rural Communities
There are worse prisons than words.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has had a key piece removed from it.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Prisoner of Heaven
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
"An interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Book Browse
Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
I stepped into the bookshop and breathed in that perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
One never forgets faces one wholeheartedly detests.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Prisoner of Heaven
If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is win over her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft wrapping that steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
In Barcelona, the Mediterranean storms come up from the sea, thunder and lightning, it's like the end of the world.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Interview: Carlos Ruiz Zafon", The Scotsman, Jun. 13, 2010
It's only worth staying in bed if you're young and in good company.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
People talk too much. Humans aren't descended from monkeys. They come from parrots.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
For some reason, I never felt the need to have kids. My wife feels the same. We don't feel a void. I don't think they would give my life meaning. I do think of the books as my children, though. Whatever is inside of me, I put into my books.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"The Shadow Maker", The Telegraph, Nov. 27, 2005
She was seventeen, her entire life shining on her lips.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Money is like any other virus: once it has rotted the soul of the person who houses it, it sets off in search of new blood.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Never trust girls who let themselves be touched right away. But even less those who need a priest for approval.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
I am a night creature, and I write from midnight till dawn, secluded in my office and surrounded by my collection of dragons (I have 400 of them). I only use Macintosh computers, which I name in dynastic order. Right now I'm using MacDragon 5. Only the devil is able to decipher my handwriting.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Meet the Writers: Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Barnes & Noble
I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Nothing is fair. The most one can hope is for things to be logical.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
When everyone is determined to present someone as a monster, there are two possibilities: either he's a saint or they themselves are not telling the whole story.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind