Paulo Coelho

I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.

I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.

When I'm dancing, I'm not thinking about anything. I am here. I am totally there. You know? And the feeling is a sensation of being away from myself. My soul dances with the angels, and my body dances with my wife.

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

I don't set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.

to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.

Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.

Don't listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people's failures.

When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.

The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.

Life can seem short or life can seem long, depending on how you live it.

Dreams nourish the soul just as food nourishes the body. The pleasure of the search and of adventure feeds our dreams.

What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.

Our body remains alive, yet sooner or later our soul will receive a mortal blow. The perfect crime--for we don't know who murdered our joy, what their motives were, or where the guilty parties are to be found.

At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.

It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge.

Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.

But he was wrong. Because I had fought with my heart and defeated it long ago. I was certainly not going to become passionate about something that was impossible. I knew my limits; I knew how much suffering i could bear.