Quotes from Paulo Coelho

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

Jesus lived a life that was full of joy and contradictions and fights, you know? If they were to paint a picture of Jesus without contradictions, the gospels would be fake, but the contradictions are a sign of authenticity.

Writing is a solitary experience. I'm extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It's so intimate, I can't even share it with my wife.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset - tears are words waiting to be written.

I have spent every New Year's Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It's a place with meaning for me.

Truth resides where there is faith.

The future would end up finding out the truth about the past.

Only when l know, the truth will set me free!

Life moves very fast. It rushes from Heaven to Hell in a matter of seconds.

I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It's like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.

True love does not consist in trying to correct others, but in feeling joy that things are better than we expected.

Real love changes and grows with time and discovers new ways of expressing itself.

When we can do nothing else, we can still love, without expecting any reward or change or gratitude.

In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love.

Love doesn't limit itself to relationships: it is a celebration of life.

In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.

Men dream more about coming home than about leaving.

Have courage, be capable of loving.... Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart.

A good, true, intense love is not complete without madness.

He who loves has conquered the world and has no fear of losing anything. True love is an act of total surrender.

I free myself from hatred through forgiveness and love.

But now I knew that true love was above all that and that it would be better to die than to fail to love.

The only reason I don't throw myself into your arms, kiss you and make love with you now is that I lack the courage and am afraid of loving you.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.