Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist is a novel by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, and it remains the title most closely associated with his name.
Coelho was born on August 24, 1947, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was educated at St. Ignatius College and has worked across several creative fields throughout his life, including journalism, songwriting, lyric writing, and composing, in addition to his work as a novelist and poet. He writes in Portuguese. His career in fiction has produced a substantial body of work alongside The Alchemist, including Brida, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, The Fifth Mountain, Eleven Minutes, The Zahir, The Witch of Portobello, Aleph, and The Spy. The facts also identify him as a science fiction writer.
Coelho has received a number of awards and honours. France recognised him with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and he later received the higher rank of Officer of Arts and Letters, as well as the Knight of the Legion of Honour. He also received the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle in the novels category and the Gold Medal of Galicia. These honours, taken together with a body of work that spans multiple genres and creative disciplines, mark Coelho as a Brazilian novelist writing in Portuguese who has earned recognition well beyond his home country.
Quotes by Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho's insights on:
I’m afraid of love, because it involves things that are beyond our understanding, it sheds such a brilliant light, but the shadow it casts frightens me.
There's nothing deeper than love. In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the princesses kiss princes, and the princes turn into frogs.
I realised a long time ago that a warrior in search of his dream must take his inspiration from what he actually does & not from what he imagines himself doing.
Faith is not desire. Faith is will. Desires are things that need to be satisfied, whereas will is a force. Will changes the space around us.
She didn't need to understand the meaning of life; it was enough to find someone who did, and then fall asleep in his arms and sleep as a child sleeps, knowing that someone stronger than you is protecting you from all evil and all danger.
Routine has nothing to do with repetition. To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat, until the technique becomes intuitive.
The love is a wild force. When we try to control her, she destroys us. When we try to comprehend her, she perturbs us.
