The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

through that narrow lane, more of a scar than a street,

A SECRET’S WORTH DEPENDS ON THE PEOPLE FROM WHOM IT MUST be kept.

There’s no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds.

THAT AFTERNOON OF MIST AND DRIZZLE, CLARA BARCELÓ STOLE my heart, my breath, and my sleep.

I adored her all the more, because of the eternal human stupidity of pursuing those who hurt us the most.

“Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them,”

Sophie slowly faded away, her life shipwrecked on a sea of disappointment, isolation, and guilt.

As Freud tells us, women want the opposite of what they think or say they want, which, when you consider it, is not so bad, because men, as is more than evident, respond, contrariwise, to the dictates of their genital and digestive organs.”

“Then, please, sire, could you get to the frigging point? Because with all this metaphorical spin and flourish, I’m beginning to feel a fiery bowel movement at the gates,”

we exist as long as somebody remembers us.”

You cannot understand such things right now, because you’re young. But in good time you’ll see that sometimes what matters isn’t what one gives but what one gives up.

Love is a lot like pork: there’s loin steak and there’s bologna. Each has its own place and function.

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.

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you,”

“You’re shown a pair of nice boobs and you think you’ve seen Saint Teresa—which

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.”

Vanitas peccata mundi.”

I remained glued to the fire, watching the steam rise from my clothes like a fleeing soul.

Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen.”

Contrary to what you firmly believe, the earth does not revolve around the desires of your crotch.

“The dead never go to their own funeral.”

It’s funny how we judge others and don’t realize the extent of our disdain until they are no longer there, until

they are taken from us. They’re taken from us because they’ve never been ours….”

It was my twenty-fourth birthday, and I knew that the best part of my life was already behind me.

“Making money isn’t hard in itself,” he complained. “What’s hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one’s life to.”

Both wondered whether this was due to the cards they’d been dealt or to the way they had played them.

“One loves truly only once in a lifetime, Julián, even if one isn’t aware of it.”

Memories are worse than bullets.”