Spanish novelist (1964- )
Nothing is fair. The most one can hope is for things to be logical.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
Deep down we've never been who we think we once were, and we only remember what never happened.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Prisoner of Heaven
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
The Shadow of the Wind
If only everything hurt as little as a blow to the face.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
I'm not talking to anyone, I'm delivering a monologue. It's the inebriated man's prerogative.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
Men are like chestnuts they sell in the street: they're all hot and they all smell good when you buy them, but when you take them out of the paper cone you realise that most of them are rotten inside.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Prisoner of Heaven
Human nature provides the lyrics, and we novelists just compose the music.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"An interview with Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Book Browse
I've always thought that we are what we remember, and the less we remember, the less we are.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Q & A: Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Time, Jun. 30, 2009
The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
The teachers tried everything, even pleading, but Tomas was in the habit of addressing them only in Latin, a language he spoke with papal fluency and in which he did not stammer. Sooner or later they all resigned in despair, fearing he might be possessed: he might be spouting demonic instructions in Aramaic at them, for all they knew.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
All true stories begin and end in a cemetery.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
Deep down nobody is bad, only frightened.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Prisoner of Heaven
I was always fascinated by the fact that you could take paper and ink and create worlds, images, characters. It seemed like magic.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Q & A: Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Time, Jun. 30, 2009
A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
I'm fascinated by the period that goes from the Industrial Revolution to right after World War II. There's something about that period that's epic and tragic. There's a point after the industrial period where it seems like humanity's finally going to make it right. There were advances in medicine and technology and education. People are going to be able to live longer lives; literacy is starting to spread. It seemed like finally, after centuries of toiling and misery, that humanity was going to get to a better stage. And then what happens is precisely the contrary. Humanity betrays itself.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Q & A: Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon", Time, Jun. 30, 2009
I would go to newsstands and buy paperbacks they were selling for tourists, usually bestsellers and mass market paperbacks. In the beginning, it was like going to the Rosetta Stone--I didn’t understand anything, I'd get a headache--but I began to figure it out, and I'd read a lot of Stephen King paperbacks. I've always said he was my English professor.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"A Gothic favorite comes stateside", Book Page
Once I'd worked out that I couldn't possibly expect people to enjoy a monstrous, 3000-page book, I realised I could in fact create a labyrinth of a story with four different points of entry. But what interested me was creating something that would rearrange itself every time you read one of the other books. So depending on which order you read them, the implications and angles would change. To get that right, each one of the books had to have its own personality and texture -- even though they are connected, they are very different creatures.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
"Carlos Ruiz Zafon's love letter to literature", New Zealand Listener, Mar. 14, 2013
Our world will not die as the result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, or making a joke of everything, and a lousy joke at that.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
We think we understand a song's lyrics but what makes us believe in them, or not, is the music.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
Perhaps for that very reason, I adored her all the more, because of the eternal human stupidity of pursuing those who hurt us the most.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind