When 'The Shadow of the Wind' became a success I had already been a working writer, I'd been through the ups and downs, I'd seen how it worked.

I turned you into a stranger in order to forget you and now I'm the stranger.

Coincidences are the scars of fate.

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

Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.

I don't belong to any side. What's more, I think flags are nothing but painted rags that represent rancid emotions. Just seeing someone wrapped up in one of them, spewing out hymns, badges and speeches, gives me the runs. I've always thought that anyone who needs to join a herd so badly must be a bit of a sheep himself

And here I was thinking you were a bit slow, what with so much asking and not knowing anything.