Arturo Pérez-Reverte Quotes

An obscure flesh-and-blood Gascon, forgotten by History, transformed into a legendary giant by the novelist's genius

But that is the way of life, and that was but one of the first times, among no few to come, that I was taught a useful lesson about how appearances trump truth, and how villains hide their vices behind masks of piety, honour, and decency. And that to denounce evildoers without proof, attack them with weapons, trust blindly in reason or justice, is often the fastest road toward one's own perdition, while the scoundrels who use influence or money as a shield remained untouched.

That was the problem with modern day witches , thought Corso : they didn't have any secrets . Everything was out in the open , you could read all about them in any Who's Who or gossip column . Baronesses or not , they had become predictable , vulgar . Torquemada would have been bored to death by it all .

It really doesn't bother me," she said. "I've always thought it stupid to try to hide your age, or to pretend to be younger than you are. Denying your age is like denying your life.

Chess is all about getting the king into check, you see. It's about killing the father. I would say that chess has more to do with the art of murder than it does with the art of war.

What about the future?""We'll talk about the future when it gets here.

No fear is unbearable, she concluded, unless you've got time on your hands and a healthy imagination.

Then she leant over and kissed him very slowly, with infinite tenderness. As if she had had to wait an eternity to do so.