David Martín on Literature

“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

“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

David Martín on Talent

“…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

David Martín on Desire

“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

David Martín on Writing

“A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price.”

— David Martín in Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Angel’s Game, Act One: “City of the Damned”, Chapter 1