The Zahir Quotes
"We are all growing and changing shape, we notice certain weaknesses that need to be corrected, we don’t always choose the best solution, but we carry on regardless, trying to remain upright and decent."
"Freedom. The freedom to be wretchedly alone."
"I have fought to make freedom my most precious commodity."
"Slaves to a life they had not chosen, but which they had decided to live because someone had managed to convince them that it was all for the best."
"The only difference is that you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile is dimmed by tears."
"What is freedom? Is it seeing that your husband isn’t interested in what you are doing? Is it feeling alone and having no one with whom to share your innermost feelings?"
"Writing is one of the most solitary activities in the world."
"The universe takes care of correcting our mistakes."
"But the Zahir, about which I initially used to think with either irritation or affection, continued to grow in my soul."
"And then there’s the Christmas tree. Do you know where that comes from?"
"I discover that many of the rituals did actually work, but I discovered, too, that those who declared themselves to be the masters and holders of the secrets of life, had completely lost touch with the teachings of the ancients."
"We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin; the second is knowing when to stop."
"I know that freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery."
"No one should ever ask themselves that: Why am I unhappy? The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything."
"Love is giving me a pretty hard time at the moment, as you know. Now this could be seen as a descent into hell or it could be seen as a revelation."
"If there is suffering, then it’s best to accept it, because it won’t go away just because you pretend it’s not there."
"If there is joy, then it’s best to accept that too, even though you’re afraid it might end one day."
"Don’t be afraid; the only way to avoid that suffering would be to refuse to love."
"Every time I look at him, I feel more and more insignificant and understand less and less how Esther could have exchanged me for someone who seems so unworldly."
"When I ceased to be who I am, I found myself. When I experienced humiliation and yet kept on walking, I understood that I was free to choose my destiny."
"The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore."
"We can’t allow ourselves the luxury of being unhappy all the time."
"History will only change when we are able to use the energy of love, just as we use the energy of the wind, the seas, the atom."
"To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose."
"Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person."
"Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability, or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life."
"I believe in signs. I believe in fate. I believe that every single day people are offered the chance to make the best possible decision about everything they do."
"The more I thought about this, the weaker the Zahir became and the closer I moved to myself."
"In order to surrender myself to him, I had to forget all the scars left by other men."
"I have a wife whom I love, but I don’t always remember that and find myself asking: ‘What’s wrong with me?’"
"People are impressed, they imagine a generous dowry, huge bank accounts, and think how lucky my mother is to have finally found someone."
"According to the tradition of the steppes, in order to live fully, it is necessary to be in constant movement."
"They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people’s ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams."
"A brush with death always helps us to live our lives better."
"Literature is full of examples of writers with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy: Molière, Edgar Allan Poe, Flaubert…."
"Love is only a small thing, enough for one person, and any suggestion that the heart might be larger than this is considered perverse."
"What matters is repeating it hundreds and thousands of times, until we have freed ourselves from the idea of hitting the target and have ourselves become the arrow, the bow, the target."
"The acomodador or giving-up point: there is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress."
"Better to eat half a sandwich than a whole one. Better to be interrupted by the man who wants to get straight back home because there’s a big game on TV tonight or by the woman who stops outside a shop window and interrupts what we were saying about the cathedral tower, far better that than to have the whole of Geneva to yourself with all the time and quiet in the world to visit it."
"Our children must follow in our footsteps; after all, we are older and know about the world."
"We must always consider the look of our new cave, and if we don’t have a clear idea of our own, then we must call in a decorator who will do his best to show others what good taste we have."
"You are nobody, never even dare to think that you know more than we do."
"Because when you’re alone—and I’m talking here about an enforced solitude not of our choosing—it’s as if you were no longer part of the human race."
"The last eighty-five percent are the Trays...don’t they ever get sick of it, I wonder?"
"Just as some people are addicted to work, so others are addicted to fun."
"The organizer explains that the woman who publishes my books...has already been invited."
"The question slips out inadvertently. Everyone at the table goes quiet."
"We could talk about the importance of forgetting the story we’ve been told and trying to live an entirely different story."
"Not always. After all, my wife left me, and I’m a wealthy man."
"Sex is certainly more interesting, but I’m not sure it’s a different topic of conversation."
"It’s a long story. I could start by talking about Hans and Fritz sitting in a bar in Tokyo..."
"The first thing you feel, when you set out on a journey like this, is that you’ll never arrive."