Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souzais a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. His novel The Alchemist has been translated into 80 languages. The author has sold over 200 million copies worldwide and is the all-time bestselling Portuguese language author...
NationalityBrazilian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1947
CityRio de Janeiro, Brazil
CountryBrazil
Courage is the first spiritual quality that you need to have.
I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now.
I want to continue being crazy; living my life the way I dream it, and not the way the other people want it to be.
Elegance is accepted and admired because it makes no effort to be elegant.
Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.
Why do we have to listen to our hearts?" "Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.
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.
I am 100 per cent Virgo, stubborn, over-organised, slightly abstracted from the rest of the world.
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.
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.
I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.
Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.
In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.
Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.