Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

"When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds."

"I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called the body."

"What made you fall in love with a prostitute?”“I didn’t understand it myself at the time. But I’ve thought about it since, and I think it was because, knowing that your body would never be mine alone, I had to concentrate on conquering your soul."

"But if I don’t think about love, I will be nothing."

"Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free."

"Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they're not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or--such is the pleasure they experience--they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them."

"No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it"

"When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself."

"I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life."

"The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility."

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes"to life?"