“Write," he said."I'll write to you as soon as I get there," answered Julian."No. Not to me. Write books. Not letters. Write them for me, for Penelope.”

“Julian had once told me that a story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

“a story is a letter the author writes to himself to tell what he wouldn't discover otherwise.”

“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

“I quarreled with every word, every phrase and expression, every image and letter as if they were the last I was ever going to write. I wrote and rewrote every line as if my life depended on it, and then rewrote it again.”

“I was secretly convinced that with such a marvel one would be able to write anything, from novels to encyclopedias, and letters whose supernatural power would surpass any postal limitations--a letter written with that pen would reach the most remote corners of the world, even that unknowable place to which my father said my mother had gone and from where she would never return.”

“To Senor Sempere, the best friend a book could ever have: you opened the doors to the world for me and showed me how to go through them.”