L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea Quotes

“Il voyait déjà le best-seller sur les étagères des plus grosses librairies, traduit en trente-deux langues, dont l'ayapaneco, ancien dialecte mexicain qui n'était plus parlé que par deux personnes au monde, qui ne savaient pas lire.”
― Romain Puértolas, L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea

“Para alguém de um país ocidental com tendência democrática, o senhor Ikea desenvolvera um conceito comercial no mínimo insólito: a visita forçada ao seu estabelecimento.
Assim, se quisesse aceder à zona de self-service situada no rés do chão, o cliente era obrigado a subir ao primeiro andar, percorrer um gigantesco e interminável corredor que serpenteava entre quartos, salas e cozinhas em exposição, cada espaço mais bonito do que o anterior, passar por um restaurante aliciante, comer umas almôndegas ou wraps de salmão e só depois descer à secção de vendas para finalmente efetuar as suas compras. Em suma, uma pessoa que quisesse comprar três parafusos e duas cavilhas saía quatro horas depois com uma cozinha equipada e uma boa indigestão.
Os suecos, pessoas muito previdentes, tinham inclusive desenhado uma linha amarela no chão para indicar o caminho a seguir, não fosse dar-se o caso de um visitante ter a má ideia de se desviar do rumo certo.”
― Romain Puértolas, L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea

“Uno experimenta un sentimiento de superioridad cuando hace un truco de magia. Sólo porque es el único en conocer el secreto. Y porque suscita la admiración. Ese sentimiento se convierte pronto en una droga.”
― Romain Puértolas, L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea

“La vita dipendeva da un niente e qualche volta i posti più banali erano il punto di partenza per eccitanti avventure.”
― Romain Puértolas, L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea

“Ajatashatru was no longer just a man who wrote stories. Having quickly developed a taste for helping others—addicted as he was to the cloud of pleasure that lifted him high into the sky whenever he performed good deeds—he had, with the aid of Marie and the huge royalties he had earned from his book, set up an association that welcomed and helped those most in need.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“He wanted the story in his book to provide some hope, if only out of respect for the wonderful people he had met during his adventure. Those men and women, black and white, Assefa and Sophie and all the others, what they had in common was a big heart. So why not tell the story of that fabulous journey that had changed him forever? It was a true story, too, not an invention. It was his story. It was what had made him the man he was today.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“So, the world was not filled only with con men, cheats and bastards. And his recent encounters had taught him that there was something much more valuable than fraudulently taking money from people: giving away that money, and spreading goodness all around. Had he heard this from someone else, he would have found it fake and sugarcoated, sickeningly sentimental, ridiculously utopian. But it was so true. He”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“It was not the amount you gave that counted, but simply the gesture of giving.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“My mother died giving birth to me. A life for a life. That is often the price of a baby for someone from a poor family.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“The girls are locked away in filthy apartments and forced to prostitute themselves to pay for their journey to this heaven, which soon turns out to be a shortcut to hell.” Assefa said all of this, apparently unaware that the same thing happens to young African girls.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“I don’t know who is the worst off, Assefa, but I’m pretty sure most white people are not in the same boat.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“at the mercy of international readmission agreements. He had been sent flying from country to country as if he were a grenade with the pin removed. First Algeria, then Tunisia, and finally Libya. Which was a little odd, as he had not been through any of these countries on his original journey. But whatever … All that mattered to the authorities was to pass this problem on to someone else as quickly as possible. You might even say that they had succeeded in inventing their gigantic immigrant catapult.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“But he’d done it. He had helped someone. His first human. And it had been disconcertingly easy. Having achieved this, Ajatashatru was overcome by a feeling of well-being, as if a radiant little vapor cloud had appeared inside his chest, and was spreading throughout his body, to the end of each limb.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“It was easily the best levitation he had ever performed. And it was also the fifth electric shock he received to his heart during this adventure.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“For the first time in his life, the Indian removed the piercings from his ears and his fleshy lips and shaved his mustache, taking as much care as if this were his last day on Earth. This was, in fact, the final act in his metamorphosis and disappearance. The fakir had evaporated forever in the steamy bathroom, and a writer had been born.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“And he had to make the most of this euphoric mood because, very soon, he would probably be moping about in his bed, alone, prey to the most intense form of depression—that felt by exiles, people torn from their roots, homebodies who find themselves miles from the places they know and love, who are so homesick they can feel it in their veins, as if they are floating down a river without a single branch to hold on to.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“For the first time in his life, someone was trusting him, just like that, without him having to come up with a cheap trick or clever ploy, but simply by him telling the truth.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“This was the fourth electric shock that the fakir received to his heart during this adventure. He had been helped again. But when would he be able to help someone else?”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“The pride he felt at having put his ideas into words was the third electric shock that the fakir received to his heart during this adventure.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“Ajatashatru smiled in the darkness. He, too, wanted, for once in his life, to do something for someone else.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“He did not say anything. Because there was nothing to say. Ashamed by his own base motives, he thanked Buddha that he was on this side of the wardrobe door so he did not have to look the man in his eyes.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“Because you, you understand the helplessness of a father when he cannot even put bread in his children’s mouths. That is why we are all here, in this truck.”
― Romain Puértolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

“But away from home, even the sturdiest men become vulnerable: beaten animals with lifeless expressions, their eyes full of extinguished stars. Far from their houses, they all become frightened children, and the only thing that could console them was the success of their venture.”
― Romain Puértolas, L'Extraordinaire Voyage du fakir qui était resté coincé dans une armoire Ikea

“Una pareja se acostó púdicamente sobre una Birkeland, imaginándose ya las deliciosas noches que iban a pasar en ella. Quizá hasta harían un niño. Un cartel escrito en francés y en inglés indicaba, efectivamente, que uno de cada diez bebés había sido concebido en una cama Ikea.”
― Romain Puértolas, El increíble viaje del faquir que se quedó atrapado en un armario de Ikea

“Dhjamal Mekhan Dooyeghas nunca había visto tantas sillas, pinzas para espaguetis y lámparas en toda su vida. Allí, al alcance de su mano, una profusión de objetos de todo tipo se apilaban delante de sus ojos asombrados. La mayoría no sabía para qué servían, pero eso no le importaba demasiado. Era la cantidad lo que le impresionaba. Una verdadera cueva de Alí Babá. Había cosas por todos lados. Si su primo hubiera estado allí con él, Dhjamal le hubiera dicho: «¡Mira eso! ¡Y esto otro! ¡Y eso de allí!»,”
― Romain Puértolas, El increíble viaje del faquir que se quedó atrapado en un armario de Ikea