When I was 40, I wrote my first book, The Pilgrimage, and I said to myself, "why did it take so long for me to write this book?" Because my dream, since I was 10 years old, was to be a writer. I said, I have to revisit my life using a metaphor, and the metaphor was basically this boy that has a dream and has to go far away to realize that his dream is close to him.
Paulo CoelhoScars are medals branded on the flesh, and your enemies will be frightened by them because they are proof of your long experience of battle.
Paulo CoelhoI don't know what to do. I only know that it's taken me years to understand that life was pushing me in a direction I didn't want to go in.
Paulo CoelhoUp until then, whenever anyone had mentioned the possibility of making a film adaptation, my answer had always been, โNo, Iโm not interested.โ I believe that each reader creates his own film inside his head, gives faces to the characters, constructs every scene, hears the voices, smells the smells. And that is why, whenever a reader goes to see a film based on a novel that he likes, he leaves feeling disappointed, saying: โthe book is so much better than the film.
Paulo Coelho