Isabel Allende Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• I love fiction because in fiction you go into the thoughts of people, the little people, the people who were defeated, the poor, the women, the children that are never in history books.

  Isabel Allende

  Children, Book, People

  "Author Isabel Allende". "Tell Tavis" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. May 12, 2010.

• Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Heart, Character

• I don't think of literature as an end in itself. It's just a way of communicating something.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Reading, Thinking

• I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes.

  Isabel Allende

  Believe, Book, Self

• My name is Eva, which means 'life,' according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.

  Isabel Allende

  Mother, Memories, Latin

  Isabel Allende (1989). “Eva Luna”, Bantam

• January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Inspiration, Writing

• The fact people think that when you sell a lot of books you are not a serious writer is a great insult to the readership. I get a little angry when people try to say such a thing.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Thinking, People

  "This much I know" by Lawrence Donegan, www.theguardian.com. July 12, 2008.

• More and more books are published every year. If people were not reading them, they wouldn't be published. We are in a different moment. We are now reading electronic books or whatever else, but people are still reading, and people still need stories.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Reading, Years

  "Isabel Allende: Despite Terrorism, the World Is a Better Place Now Than Ever Before". Interview with Michael Skafidas, www.huffingtonpost.com.

• You write a book and it's like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean. You don't know if it will ever reach any shores. And there, you see, sometimes it falls in the hands of the right person.

  Isabel Allende

  Ocean, Book, Fall

• My books are written from personal experience, from memories, and from stories that come to me from all places.

  Isabel Allende

  Memories, Book, Stories

  Interview with Marisel Mendoza, www.ventanalatina.co.uk. April 10, 2013.

• I'm not a fan of mysteries, so to prepare for this experience of writing a mystery I started reading the most successful ones in the market in 2012. And I realized I cannot write that kind of book. It's too gruesome, too violent, too dark; there's no redemption there.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Reading, Writing

  "The Mystery Of Isabel Allende: Author Explores New Genre". "All Things Considered" with Kelly McEvers, nwpr.org. January 25, 2014.

• My books are based on emotions, feelings, relationships. In these areas women are experts, so it's not strange that the main characters of my novels are females.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Character, Emotions Feelings

  Interview with Marisel Mendoza, www.ventanalatina.co.uk. April 10, 2013.

• In 2011, I announced that I was going to retire, and my agent panicked. So she says: No, no, no. You have to write a book with your husband.

  Isabel Allende

  Husband, Book, Writing

  "The Mystery Of Isabel Allende: Author Explores New Genre". "All Things Considered" with Kelly McEvers, nwpr.org. January 25, 2014.

• When I'm scared - and I'm always scared when I have to face an audience, when I have to read a review, when I publish a book...then, I think of my grandfather. My grandfather was this strong, tough Basque who would never bend....What would he do? Well, he would go ahead, close his eyes, and drive forward. You do it and the spirit that is within you....is there.

  Isabel Allende

  Strong, Book, Eye

• The one that came really easy was the Japanese lover, because he's like a ghost in the book. He's always in the background like a spirit, like a shadow, almost. There's a very delicate line there.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Shadow, Lines

  "The Lenny Interview: Isabel Allende". Interview with Collier Meyerson, www.lennyletter.com. January 15, 2016.

• A book is not an end in itself; it is only a way to touch someone - a bridge extended across a space of loneliness and obscurity - and sometimes it is a way of winning other people to our causes.

  Isabel Allende

  Loneliness, Book, Winning

  Isabel Allende (1989). “Paths of resistance: the art and craft of the political novel”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

• The idea of the book ["The Japanese Lover"] came in a conversation that I had with a friend walking in the streets of New York. We were talking about our mothers, and I was telling her how old my mother was, and she was telling me about her mother. Her mother was Jewish, and she said that she was in a retirement home and that she had had a friend for 40 years that was a Japanese gardener. This person had been very important in my friend's upbringing.

  Isabel Allende

  Mother, Retirement, New York

  "The Lenny Interview: Isabel Allende". Interview with Collier Meyerson, www.lennyletter.com. January 15, 2016.

• I should say that I'm not conscious of any particular style or any particular literary device when I am writing. I have written 22 books, and they are all very different. I have tried all kinds of genres.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Writing, Style

  "Isabel Allende: Despite Terrorism, the World Is a Better Place Now Than Ever Before". Interview with Michael Skafidas, www.huffingtonpost.com.

• I get hundreds of emails daily and a lot of feedback from people that are reading or have read my books. When I'm writing, or in my daily life, I just think of the work. I love to tell a story, but I might work with a story to make it the best I can without thinking of how many people will read it or if it will influence anybody.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Interview with Collier Meyerson, www.lennyletter.com. January 15, 2016.

• In my book tours I get to meet an audience every night. And I see that there are mostly young people, and there are a lot of more men than before, but always young, I don't get older men. As I'm getting older, my audience gets younger!

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Night, Men

  "Isabel Allende: Despite Terrorism, the World Is a Better Place Now Than Ever Before". Interview with Michael Skafidas, www.huffingtonpost.com.

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