The Reading Registry

David Martín on Literature

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:04:24 +0000

“Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.”

– David Martín in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act Two: “Lux Aeterna”, Chapter 13

David Martín on Inspiration

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:01:49 +0000

“Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table and your bottom on the chair and start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That’s called inspiration.”

– David Martín in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act Two: “Lux Aeterna”, Chapter 13

Andreas Corelli on Silence

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:32:54 +0000

“Silence makes even idiots seem wise for a minute.”

– Andreas Corelli in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act Two: “Lux Aeterna”, Chapter 8

David Martín on Talent

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:08:22 +0000

“…there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere. This is only the first step toward achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon… Every work of art is aggressive… And every artist’s life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one’s limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.”

– David Martín in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act Two: “Lux Aeterna”, Chapter 5

Andreas Corelli on Narratives

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:57:18 +0000

“Everything is a tale… What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.”

– Andreas Corelli in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 24

Andreas Corelli on Religion

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:51:36 +0000

“Poetry aside, a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends, myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values, and rules with which to regulate a culture or society.”

– Andreas Corelli in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 24

Francisco d’Anconia on Contradictions

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:28:51 +0000

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

– Francisco d’Anconia in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Part I, Chapter VII

Andreas Corelli on Friendship

Noah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:16:56 +0000

“I don’t trust people who say they have a lot of friends. It’s a sure sign that they don’t really know anyone.”

– Andreas Corelli in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 13

David Martín on Desire

Noah — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:22:01 +0000

“You don’t know what thirst is until you drink for the first time.”

– David Martín in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 4

Pedro Vidal on Envy

Noah — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:16:27 +0000

“Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it soothes their worries, and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and greed until they believe these to be virtues. Such people are convinced that the doors of heaven will be opened only to poor wretches like themselves who go through life without leaving any trace but their threadbare attempts to belittle others and to exclude–and destroy if possible–those who, by the simple fact of their existence, show up their own poorness of spirit, mind, and guts. Blessed be the one at whom the fools bark, because his soul will never belong to them.”

– Pedro Vidal in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 2