Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything.

Martin, at my age, eroticism is reduced to enjoying caramel custard and looking at widows' necks.' - Senor Sempere.

In those days I learned that nothing is more frightening than a hero who lives to tell his story, to tell what all those who fell at his side will never be able to tell.

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

In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.

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

I was secretly convinced that with such a marvel one would be able to write anything, from novels to encyclopedias, and letters whose supernatural power would surpass any postal limitations--a letter written with that pen would reach the most remote corners of the world, even that unknowable place to which my father said my mother had gone and from where she would never return.