Quotes from The Ingredients of Love

“La felicidad y la desdicha estan a veces muy cerca. Expresado de otra forma se podria decir que la felicidad da a veces curiosos rodeos”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“When you're unhappy, you either see nothing at all and the world sinks into meaninglessness, or else you see things preternaturally sharply, and everything suddenly seems to have meaning. Even the most banal things, like a traffic light turning from red to green, can decide whether you turn left or right.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Je ne vois pas la raison.
Je ne regrette rien.
Je m'en fous.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Seit ich die Menschen kenne, liebe ich die Tiere.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“A veces se sale para ir a algún sitio. Y a veces se sale sólo para andar y andar y seguir andando, hasta que la niebla se disipa, la desesperación disminuye o se acaba de meditar una idea.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Cuando se quiere algo hay que quererlo de verdad.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Pero allí, en la vida real, en esa pequeña calle cubierta de nieve, en una gran ciudad a la que se considera la ciudad del amor, me convirtió en el hombre más feliz de París.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Years don't mean anything, only what happens in them.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Un libro bueno es bueno en todas sus páginas.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Mi teoría es que se puede dividir en tres grandes grupos a las personas que escriben novelas y nos cuentan algo.
Unos escriben siempre sobre sí mismos… y algunos de ellos se cuentan entre los grandes de la literatura.
Otros tienen un talento envidiable para inventar historias. Van en el tren, miran por la ventanilla y, de pronto, tienen una idea.
Y luego están aquellos que, por así decirlo, son los impresionistas de los escritores. Su talento consiste en encontrar historias.
Van por el mundo con los ojos bien abiertos y captan situaciones, ambientes y pequeñas escenas como si cogieran cerezas de los árboles.
Un gesto, una sonrisa, el modo en que alguien se pasa la mano por el pelo o se ata los cordones de los zapatos. Instantáneas tras las que se esconden historias. Imágenes que se convierten en historias.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Fue esa sonrisa la que me cautivó y me llenó de alegría a pesar de que no iba dirigida a mí. Yo estaba ahí afuera, tras el cristal, como un mirón y sin atreverme a respirar… ¡tan perfecto me pareció ese momento!”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“En París hacía frío y llovía, pero el tiempo no importa cuando se está enamorado.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Cuando se es desgraciado, o no se ve nada y el mundo carece de importancia, o se ven las cosas demasiado bien y todo adquiere de pronto un significado. Incluso algo tan banal como un semáforo que cambia de rojo a verde puede decidir si se va a la derecha o a la izquierda.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Lo de las novelas es un asunto muy delicado. ¿De dónde sacan los autores las historias? ¿Están en su interior y hay luego determinadas circunstancias que hacen que salgan a la superficie? ¿Las atrapan los escritores en el aire? ¿Reflejan la vida de personas reales?”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Y a veces queda una canción,
una hoja de papel con dos corazones,
el dulce recuerdo de un día de verano.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“—Yo también tengo un corazón de oro —dije, y cogí su mano y la puse sobre mi pecho—. ¿Lo nota?”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Cada dos metros nos parábamos para besarnos y tardamos una eternidad en llegar al portal de mi casa. Pero el tiempo no importaba en esa noche que no conocía ni el día ni las horas.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“—¡Nunca tienes suficiente!
—No. ¡Nunca tengo suficiente de ti!
Ni yo de ti, pensé.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“La pena es un sitio donde llueve y llueve y nunca crece nada.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Escribir las últimas líneas de una novela significa siempre despedirse de los protagonistas que le han acompañado a uno durante mucho tiempo. Y aunque sean, en mayor o menor medida, inventados, están muy cerca del corazón del autor.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Sull'amore quando finisce:
L'amore, quando finisce, è sempre triste.
Raramente è nobile e generoso.
Chi lascia ha la coscienza sporca.
Chi viene lasciato si lecca le ferite.
Il fallimento fa quasi più male della disperazione.
Alla fine però ognuno è quello che è sempre stato.
E a volte resta una canzone, un foglio di carta con due cuori,
Il dolce ricordo di un giorno d'estate.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Spesso il confine tra felicità e infelicità è labile: a volte la felicità arriva per strane vie traverse.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“A volte si cammina per andare da qualche parte, a volte si cammina e basta. E si continua a camminare finché la nebbia non si dirada, finché la disperazione non si placa o finché non abbiamo analizzato da tutte le angolazioni possibili il pensiero che ci martella il cervello.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Sì, s', sì, lo sapevo. Fumare fa male. Mangiare fa male. Bere fa male. Tutte le cose piacevoli fanno male o come minimo fanno ingrassare. Troppa eccitazione fa male. Troppo lavoro fa male. In pratica la vita non è altro che un pericolosissimo campo minato e alla fine cadi da una scala mentre raccogli ciliegie o finisci sotto una macchina mentre vai a comprare il pane, come la portinaia nell'Eleganza del Riccio.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Quand les gens me demandent d'où je tiens mes idées, je leur dis que je ne sais pas. C'est une question stupide. Car si je savais d'où je tiens mes idées, ce ne seraient plus mes idées. Ce seraient des idées d'un autre et je les aurais volées. Les idées viennent de nulle part et surgissent dans votre tête. peut-être viennent-elles de Dieu ou de puissances obscures ou de tout autre chose.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“La felicidad y la desdicha están a veces muy cerca. Expresado de otra forma se podría decir que la felicidad da a veces curiosos rodeos.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“I was always deeply impressed by a scene from the old black-and-white film Les enfants du paradis. It’s the last shot, where the despairing Baptiste is running after his great love Garance and finally loses her in the commotion of a street carnival. He’s overwhelmed, he can’t get through, he’s surrounded and shoved by the laughing, dancing crowd he’s stumbling through. An unhappy, confused man among joyful people who are exuberantly celebrating”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Sorrow is a land where it rains and rains and yet nothing grows,”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

“Los años no significan nada. Sólo importa lo que ocurre en ellos.”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love

About the author

Popular quotes

“With these words there came the rending scream of a shattered stirk and an angry troubling of the branches as the poor madman percolated through the sieve of a sharp yew, a wailing black meteor hurtling through green clouds, a human prickles.”
― Flann O'Brien, quote from At Swim-Two-Birds

“Almost halfway down the aisle, she saw someone she wasn't expecting, and she almost stumbled on her satin heels.
Kingsley Martin stood at the end of a pew, his arms crossed. He was wearing a tuxedo as well. Just like any other guest. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Paris! He was supposed to be gone!
He looked directly at Mimi.
She heard his voice loud and clear in her head. Leave him.
Why should I? What do you promise me?
Nothing. And everything. A life of danger and adventure. A chance to be
yourself. Leave him. Come with me.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
― Malala Yousafzai, quote from I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

“Il bene viene sempre troppo tardi, diventa realtà troppo tardi, quando non si è più capaci di goderne.”
― Thomas Mann, quote from Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”
― Michael Crichton, quote from Sphere

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.