We are willing to believe anything other than the truth.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

We seem to live in a world where forgetting and oblivion are an industry in themselves and very, very few people are remotely interested or aware of their own recent history, much less their neighbors'. I tend to think we are what we remember, what we know. The less we remember, the less we know about ourselves, the less we are. (Interview with Three Monkeys Online, October 2008)

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Whether we realize it or not, most of us define ourselves by opposing rather than by favoring something or someone. To put it another way, it is easier to react than to act. Nothing arouses a passion for dogma more than a good antagonist. And the more unlikely, the better. … It’s difficult to hate an idea. … It’s much easier to hate someone with a recognizable face whom we can blame for everything that makes us feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be an individual character. Furthermore, it could be a nation, a race, a group … anything.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Who are the lunatics? The ones who see horror in the heart of their fellow humans and search for peace at any price? Or the ones who pretend they don't see what's going on around them? The world belongs either to lunatics or hypocrites. There are no other races on this earth. You must choose which one to belong to.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Whoever said that childhood is the happiest time of your life is a liar, or a fool.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Without further ado I left the place, finding my route by the marks I had made on the way in. As I walked in the dark through the tunnels and tunnels of books, I could not help being overcome by a sense of sadness. I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser, the more it forgot.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

You don't know what thirst is until you drink for the first time.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

You don't look well," he pronounced." Indigestion," I replied." From what?"" Reality."" Join the queue.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

You don't win a game by hitting the ball out of the court.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón