a man was on his way to the gallows when he met another, who asked him: where are you going, my friend? and the condemned man replied: i'm not going anywhere. they're taking me by force.

Death is present every day in our lives. It's not that I take pleasure in the morbid fascination of it, but it is a fact of life.

Ah, in every age there is always some new wonder to astound mankind until they grow accustomed to it and lose interest.

I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.

when you are old and realize that time is running out, you start imagining that you have the cure for all the ills of the world in your hand, and get frustrated because no one pays you any attention.

I was born in a family of landless peasants, in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo, on the right bank of the Almonda River, around a hundred kilometres north-east of Lisbon.

Human nature is, by definition, a talkative one, imprudent, indiscreet, gossipy, incapable of closing its mouth and keeping it closed.