“The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction.”

Source: The Angel's Game

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think…" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón?
Carlos Ruiz Zafón photo
Carlos Ruiz Zafón 149
Spanish writer 1964

Related quotes

Robert E. Howard photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo

“…you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

Source: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. 137

Michael Swanwick photo

“Money can always be traced. It leaves a trail of slime behind it wherever it goes.”

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 2, “Witch Cults of Whitemarsh” (p. 26)

Jay McInerney photo
Prevale photo

“If you want to get to know a person well, wait for them to get angry. An angry person always acts on instinct showing his true character and authentic thoughts of him.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Se vuoi conoscere bene una persona, aspetta che si arrabbi. Una persona arrabbiata agisce sempre d'istinto mostrando il suo vero carattere ed i suoi autentici pensieri.
Source: prevale.net

Bono photo

“Love is not the easy thing…
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

Lyrics, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), Walk On

William Faulkner photo

“Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist's way of scribbling "Kilroy was here" on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Paris Review interview (1958)
Context: The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist's way of scribbling "Kilroy was here" on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.

Andrew Francis photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about.”

Vol. 2, Ch. 22, § 257 "On Thinking for Yourself" as translated in Essays and Aphorisms(1970) as translated by R. J. Hollingdale
Variant translation: Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims

Related topics