Paolo Coelho
The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009). During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions. Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers. From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution of his work.
“They spent days, nights, weeks and months talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tries to put it into practice”
“When you dance, do you feel desire? Do you feel as if you were summoning up a greater energy? When you dance, are there moments when you cease to be yourself?”
“Do you know what I've learned? That although ecstasy is the ability to stand outside yourself, dance is a way of rising up into space, of discovering new dimensions while still remaining in touch with your body. When you dance, the spiritual world and the real world manage to coexist quite happily. I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies.”
“Elle avait exercé pendant quarante ans la profession d'avocate. dès le début de sa carrière, elle avait vite perdu sa vision ingénue de la justice, et elle avait compris que les lois n'avaient pas été conçues pour résoudre les problèmes, mais pour prolonger indéfiniment des querelles.”
“Si Eve n'avait pas mangé de la pomme, que serait-il arrivé d'intéressant au cours de ces millions d'années?”
“It was best to put an end to everything now, while she was still brave and healthy enough to die”
“Life is absolutely insane. Yes, life is insane but the great wisdom lies in choosing your insanity wisely.”
“Waiting Hurts. Forgetting Hurts. But not knowing which decision to take is the worst of suffering.”
“il y a une grande vérité en ce monde: qui que tu sois et quoi que tu fasse, lorsque tu veux vraiment quelque chose, c'est que ce désir est né dans l'âme de l'Univers. C'est ta mission sur la Terre.”
“Everything gets better in the end. If it's not better, it's not quite the end.”
“Outside, beyond what is right and wrong, there exists a vast field. We will find each other there”
“I don't see any reason why I should look for someone who never took the trouble to love me.”
“Maktub.”
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of faliure.”
“Don't think about what you've left behind... everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever.”
“I don't regret the painful times; I bare my scars as if they were medals.”
“Вот она, истинная свобода – обладать тем, что тебе дороже всего, но не владеть этим. (11 Minutes)”
“Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum.”
“If a man we don't know phones us up one day and talks a little, makes no suggestions, says nothing special, but nevertheless pays us the kind of attention we rarely receive, we're quite capable of going to bed with him that night, feeling relatively in love. That's what we women are like, and there's nothing wrong with that - it's the nature of the female to open herself to love easily.”
“In adolescence she thought it was too early to choose; now, in young adulthood, she was convinced it was too late to change.”