One of the best possible perspectives from which to tell a story is that of a ghost, someone who is dead but can still witness.
Javier MaríasPeople only get married when they've no other option, out of panic or desperation or so as not to lose someone they couldn't bear to lose. It's always the most conventional things that contain the largest measure of madness.
Javier MaríasIllusions are important. What you foresee or what you remember can be as important as what really happens.
Javier MaríasWe lose everything because everything remains except us. And therefore any form of posterity may be an affront, and perhaps any memory, as well.
Javier MaríasListening is the most dangerous thing of all, listening means knowing, finding out about something and knowing what’s going on, our ears don’t have lids that can instinctively close against the words uttered, they can’t hide from what they sense they’re about to hear, it’s always too late.
Javier Marías