Once again she shuddered with the evidence that time was not passing, as she had just admitted, but that it was turning in a circle.

Carmelia Montiel, a twenty-year-old virgin, had just bathed in orange-blossom water and was strewing rosemary leaves on Pilar Ternera's bed when the shot rang out. Aureliano José had been destined to find with her the happiness that Amaranta had denied him, to have seven children, and to die in her arms of old age, but the bullet that entered his back and shattered his chest had been directed by a wrong interpretation of the cards.

One can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the sorrow with each, and not betray any of them.

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

The problem in public life is learning to overcome terror; the problem in married life is learning to overcome boredom.

Old people, with other old people, are not so old.

I don't have a method. All I do is read a lot, think a lot, and rewrite constantly. It's not a scientific thing.