Paulo Coelho Quotes

‘You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘No, I never saw an angel, but it is irrelevant whether I saw one or not. I feel their presence around me.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality – it connects you to reality.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘You should treat a muse like a fairy.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone’s eyes.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘There is an afterlife. I am convinced of this.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money’s not related to happiness.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Happiness is just another of the tricks that our genetic system plays on us to carry out its only role, which is the survival of the species.’ – 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.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I always was a rich person because money’s not related to happiness.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’m not a person that socializes very well.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don’t believe in it. It’s something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I am 100 per cent Virgo, stubborn, over-organised, slightly abstracted from the rest of the world.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The major religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, they deny somehow that God has a feminine face. However, if you go to the holy texts, you see there is this feminine presence.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’m not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘You’re always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset – tears are words waiting to be written.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Music for me, it demands full concentration.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It’s like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘With all due respect, the Mona Lisa is overrated.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘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.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Today, writers want to impress other writers.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘It’s very difficult to read a book on your computer.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’ve done everything I wanted to do, even if I have had to pay a very high price – which has been the case most of the time.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘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.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘When you write an article about anything, trolls use the comments to attack. They feel frustrated – but haters are losers. It’s not good to feed this aspect. It’s more intelligent to be constructive.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Jesus lived a life that was full of joy and contradictions and fights, you know? If they were to paint a picture of Jesus without contradictions, the gospels would be fake, but the contradictions are a sign of authenticity.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I was arrested three times and tortured once.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I am a Catholic.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I never say I am a guru.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: ‘Oh my God, what a blessing.’ Then you realise it’s important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Everything for me is sacred, beginning with earth, but also going to things made by man.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘MySpace is an addiction.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’m modern because I make the difficult seem easy, and so I can communicate with the whole world.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Twitter is my bar. I sit at the counter and listen to the conversations, starting others, feeling the atmosphere.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I had this dream to become a writer since I was a teenager.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I hate to be smart.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I don’t try to control my days.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I don’t go to parties in general.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘My readers – and I get 400 emails for a day, my readers normally they say, well, you understand me, and I answer, you do understand me also. We are in the same level.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The only thing that relaxes me is archery. That’s why I have to have apartments with gardens.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I tweet in the morning and the evening. To write 12 hours a day, there is a moment when you’re really tired. It’s my relaxing time.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Once I found this possibility to use Twitter and Facebook and my blog to connect to my readers, I’m going to use it, to connect to them and to share thoughts that I cannot use in the book.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It’s not my business whether people like or dislike it.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘This may sound a little bit idealistic, but when I go to my blog, my Facebook page, my Twitter account, I talk to different people from all over the world, and you see how it’s easy to establish a dialogue.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘MySpace is my wife… Facebook is my mistress.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘It’s not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I’m first and foremost a writer. I followed my personal legend, my childhood dream of becoming a writer, but I can’t say why I’m one.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I can’t consciously explain how people feel after reading my books. All is too personal.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘I have spent every New Year’s Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It’s a place with meaning for me.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Physical elegance, which is what I am talking about here, comes from the body. This is no superficial matter, but rather the way that man found to honour the way he places his two feet on the ground.’ – Paulo Coelho

‘Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.’ – Paulo Coelho