None of us are what we once were.

I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.

I tried to swallow his nonsense without choking.

Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

Sometimes we think people are like lottery tickets, that they're there to make our most absurd dreams come true.

Every work of art is aggressive, Isabella. And every artist's life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one's limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.

Some like to believe it's the book that chooses the person.