Quotes from book
Eleven Minutes

Eleven Minutes
Paulo Coelho Original title Onze Minutos (Portuguese, 2003)

Eleven Minutes is a 2003 novel by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho that recounts the experiences of a young Brazilian prostitute and her journey to self-realisation through sexual experience.


Paulo Coelho photo

“That the truest experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.”

Variant: That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.
Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 97.
Context: In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel. It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that 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.

Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo

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

Source: Eleven Minutes

Paulo Coelho photo

“Love is, after all, a curse of suffering.”

Source: Eleven Minutes

Paulo Coelho photo

“In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel.”

Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 97.
Context: In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel. It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that 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.

Paulo Coelho quote: “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.”
Paulo Coelho photo

“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.”

Variant: i am convinced that 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.
Source: Eleven Minutes

Paulo Coelho photo

“Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”

Variant: Life moves very fast. It rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.
Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 9.
Context: 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.

Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo

“Life is too short, or too long, for me to allot myself the luxury of living it so badly.”

Variant: Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.
Source: Eleven Minutes

Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo

“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”

Variant: 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.
Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 37.

Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo

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