Isabel Allende Quotes

Writers speak for those who are kept in silence

That is the best part of writing: finding the hidden treasures, giving sparkle to worn out events, invigorating the tired soul with imagination, creating some kind of truth with many lies.

...a fixation is very stubborn: it burrows into the brain and breaks the heart. There are many fixations, but love is the worst.

The slave who dances is free ... while he is dancing.

My son, the Holy Church is on the right, but Jesus Christ was always on the left.

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

Eros is very close to death. And both things, in a way, balance each other.

I have a very acute sense of place and time, so all of my stories are rooted in a place and a time.

I'm an expert. I can kill anybody and not be caught.

Some people connect with a story and may find between the lines something that might be useful to him or her, but that's not the intention of the author, I think. At least not mine.

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.

Sometimes journalists ask me, "What's the message?" There is no message. I think that fiction should not be trying to give messages. Just tell a story.

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.

You would give your life for your little baby. It's not the same when you are in a sexual relationship unless you feel that you are loved as you love.

Youth is not a period in life but a state of mind.

And the truth is that if a writer is successful, you gain readers. It benefits all the writers. It's important for all the writers that as many of us as possible be successful.

Before I start writing, before I have an idea of where and when the story happens, I research it thoroughly.

When you tell a story in the kitchen to a friend, it's full of mistakes and repetitions. It's good to avoid that in literature, but still, a story should feel like a conversation. It's not a lecture.

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.

Land is something one should never sell. It is the only thing left when all else is gone

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

The first lie of fiction is that the author gives some order to the chaos of life: chronological order, or whatever order the author chooses.

We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged.

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.

I tend to see the similarities in people and not the differences.

I come from the so-called Third World (what is the Second)?

Write to register history, and name each thing. Write what should not be forgotten.

My writing comes not from the happy moments, but from struggle and grief.

A novel is like a window, open to an infinite landscape.

The media could do a much better job, that's for sure, especially the media that targets women... Human rights? They couldn't care less!

I have been a woman for 46 years and I only recently realized I can't change it and I like it.

My father says that fear is good; it's the body's alarm system, it warns us of danger. But sometimes danger can't be avoided, and then you have to forget about being afraid.

Just as Daniel Balalcazar said, it makes no sense to suffer in advance a misfortune that may never occur.

She intended to swallow the world and he lived crushed by reality.

Remember that all the others are more afraid than you

​Courage is a virtue appreciated in a male but considered a defect in our gender. Bold women are a threat to a world that is badly out of balance, in favor of men.

I was a lousy journalist. I could never be objective. Sometimes I invented the whole story.

I like Hillary Clinton a lot. I know her.

The success occurs in a place outside of me, and doesn't touch me on an intimate level. I live in my own skin, I have not changed greatly, I remain the same woman.

A novel is achieved with hard work, the short story with inspiration.

The connection that I have with my readers makes me very happy, and gives meaning to the strange profession of writing

I think I was a feminist before the word was invented.

I would like to be with my husband together sitting somewhere in a lonely place in the woods and take something, maybe some pills or something, a magic potion and die together.

Agosins poetic language engages the reader in a mesmerizing journey of inward reflection and exile.

The world is a very unjust, unfair place and we have to live with that. Historically, there is impunity for most crimes.

Barrabas came to us by the sea.

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.

I have learned many things in the 30 years that I have been writing.

Writing is my job. I don't think of it as art.

Feminism has never been sexy, but let me assure you that it never stopped me from flirting, and I have seldom suffered from lack of men.