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Bibilography

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Brazilian author Paulo Coelho broke sacred ground -- and crossed over into worldwide fame as an author -- with his symbolic masterpiece, The Alchemist. Since then, Coelho has dedicated his work to the ideal of helping people to follow their wildest dreams.

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Paulo Coelho Books | List of books by author Paulo Coelho

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Brazilian author Paulo Coelho broke sacred ground -- and crossed over into worldwide fame as an author -- with his symbolic masterpiece, The Alchemist. Since then, Coelho has dedicated his work to the ideal of helping people to follow their wildest dreams.

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Interview

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Posted by Goodreads on August 5, 2014

Paulo Coelho is a man of contradiction. The 67-year-old Brazilian author is an unparalleled success-known for his 1988 bestseller, The Alchemist, which is the most translated book in the world by a living author-yet he sees himself as a dreamer and a depressive. His parents committed the rebellious youth to an asylum three times, and as a lyricist whose songs were critical of his country's military rule in the 1980s, he was imprisoned and tortured. Still, he remains a joyous man, married to the same woman for 35 years and deeply grateful for "surviving the tempests" of change that have permitted him to publish one novel every two years.

To date, he has written 30 books, including By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Fifth Mountain, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, The Valkyries, The Witch of Portobello, and Brida. In his new novel, Adultery, a journalist and wife and mother in her late thirties confronts the monotony and melancholy of her perfect life when she bumps into her high school boyfriend-and soon risks everything to rediscover her true self. Goodreads author and interviewer Joy Horowitz spoke with Coelho, who splits his time between Rio de Janeiro and a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France, about his new book, how his astonishing 21.4 million Facebook followers and 9.4 million Twitter followers played a hand in its genesis, and why choosing to live a safe and comfortable life may be the worst thing we can ever do.

Goodreads: Condolences to your team in the World Cup.

Paulo Coelho: No, I'm really happy. I don't think they deserved to win. If they were bad, they should lose-so I'm happy.

GR: What made you nervous about writing this book?

PC: Nothing. Nothing.

GR: Really?

PC: The title. Yes, because people say, "Nobody will buy your book called Adultery and give it to his wife or husband or mother." I said, "Sorry, that's the title of the book, and it can't change."

GR: I would think it would be the opposite. I would think you'd have huge sales for a book called Adultery.

PC: [ Laughs] So far the book is doing extremely well. It's number one on the bestseller list in all countries it's been released, including here in France. Then people tease me a little bit, "Oh, my wife didn't want me to read this book." It's funny, because a lot of men are reading this book.

GR: Why did you decide to make your protagonist a woman?

PC: Because it is more difficult to accept adultery in a woman than in a man. I don't know why, but people take for granted that men are unfaithful. But women in general never would do this terrible thing. So I said, OK, let's hear the woman's voice on the subject.

GR: I'm curious-why is her husband nameless?

PC: I don't know! Many times you have books with a lot of names, and you start getting confused. I don't think I gave a name to the wife of the politician. Oh, yes, yes, she has a name. I don't remember the name, but she has a name.

GR: Do you like writing sex scenes?

PC: They're not the main part of the book. But I love to write the sex scenes, because I like to write her inner moments or her moments of joy.

GR: It was interesting to me that the sex in the affair was mostly about her being degraded.

PC: Yeah. Right.

GR: Is that more of a male or female fantasy?

PC: It can be both to have this fantasy. We both have this fantasy.

GR: Do you think that depression and betrayal go hand in hand?

PC: Let me tell you how I decided to write this book. In the beginning I was thinking about discussing something that was relevant to people, because I have this huge social community on Facebook and Twitter and GooglePlus. Look at my page on Facebook and you will see. But I said, I'm so famous, so popular, why not discuss something that would be relevant? I thought that depression is the main issue of today. So I said, OK, I'm going to post something about depression, and I want you to interact with this. I'm not going to mention your name. Please send your experiences and opinions to this email. In 24 hours I got more than 1,000 answers. Out of the 1,000 answers, I heard about clinical depression. Many said, "I'm depressed because somebody betrayed me." The problem is not the lack of pharmachemical components in your body. The problem is people feel betrayed, and life loses its meaning. So I said, OK, let's talk about betrayal.

But it was overwhelming how people would answer me. And the extent of the written posts [was so great] that I thought I'd do a book. So I started going to forums-anonymously, of course-to check how people react and how people regret, one of the key issues. The first impulse is, "I'm going to get a divorce and I'm going to separate because I've been betrayed." But then they regret. A one-night stand is a one-night stand. So little by little this book started as interactive posts. Then I sat down and wrote a book based on the experiences of people.

GR: The book is really a meditation on marriage and how it's constantly in flux.

PC: I've been married for 35 years. I'm walking here in the countryside now with my wife by my side. And at the end of the day, she is a completely different person, physically and mentally, from the person I married 35 years ago. So am I. But people normally marry, and then they want that locked in time, so they think they're not going to change. We're going to change. Everybody's going to change. So accepting that changes are part of our lives makes marriage a blessing and not a curse, because love is stronger than anything else.

I just saw a rabbit. They're not very faithful, by the way. It's in a rose. (Turning to his wife) Oh, my God. Take a photo of the rose.

GR: In the book you write, "Love isn't just a feeling. It's an art. And like any art, it takes not only inspiration but also a lot of work." What do you mean?

PC: Giving space for the other to grow. Controlling jealousy that leads to nowhere. Basically, I think these issues are the key to surviving the tempests. Are you married?

GR: Yes, for 37 years.

PC: So you know what I'm talking about.

GR: One of the pivotal issues in the book is the protagonist's recognition of her being alone-whether we love to avoid dealing with our own loneliness in the world.

PC: This is a sensation I have. So probably I was projecting myself because sometimes, regardless what you do, there are moments you have these things to give, to share, but people don't understand. They say, "But you're so successful. You have a lot. You have money. You have fame." Sometimes this is not enough. Sharing is the basis of everything.

GR: The book is also about aging: "After a certain age, we put on a mask of confidence and certainty. In time, that mask gets stuck to our face and we can't remove it." Is that part of the monotony, the ritual, the boredom you write about relative to marriage?

PC: Probably the fear of monotony. You go to these parties, and everybody seems so happy. It just drives me crazy. I don't go to parties, by the way. But when I'm forced to go and everybody is smiling and happy, I know it's hypocrisy. When I go to these celebrity parties with all these actors and actresses, they're always smiling to each other, but they really want to kill the other.

GR: That jealousy is an important motivating factor in the book.

PC: Absolutely. The consequence. A one-night stand is totally different from an adulterer's relationship. People can understand or hide if you went to bed with someone else. But adultery lies in passion, and passion is something that's harder to share. You really feel you are being cheated.

GR: Goodreads member Joyce Rigal writes, "In your book your protagonist is dissatisfied even though she has everything, because she isn't living her truth. Have you experienced a moment in your life when you weren't living your truth, and how did you find the clarity and courage to live it?"

PC: The answer is yes, and it was in 1986. I had everything. I had money. I had the same wife I have now. I was a successful composer and lyricist, but I was not happy. Then I decided to walk from France to Spain-the road to Santiago de Compostela, a site of Catholic pilgrimage. At the end of this spiritual journey, I said either I forget my dream of being a writer or I write my first book ( Pilgrimage), which I did. But it's not easy. You have to choose between being joyful (but not necessarily happy) and facing your challenges or trying to live a comfortable life and being safe. The second choice is the worst, because you can't feel safe. Nothing is safe. A thunderbolt could hit me and I could die. So nobody can be safe: You don't know when you're going to die. So better to choose the agony and ecstasy of living a life that fulfills you.

GR: Goodreads member Holland says, "Thank you for writing your books. They have added magic to my life. How do you think dreams serve us in life? How do you use dreams in your books and why?"

PC: Dreams are what justify life. Dreamers are people who really changed this world. I believe in dreams. I followed mine. I paid a very high price at the given moment, but I do not grieve. I think a person without dreams is a tree without roots. So dreams are the language of God. Dreams, for me, are my daily bread.

GR: Goodreads member Anthony Karakai writes, "Today's marketplace is dominated by romance and thrillers, and it appears that magical realism-outside of your novels-is not as strong as it was in the '80s and '90s. Where do you see the genre going?"

PC: It is true that we've lost this connection with magical realists because they [publishers] thought maybe this was not politically correct, that people would not read it. I'm only speaking for myself. This is the way for me to express myself. So the person who asked this question-he's totally right. Magical realism is about not having evidence for everything. And at the end of the day this is the reality. Because emotions are much more powerful than what's happening around you. You are guided by your emotions.

GR: Goodreads member Karen Reyes asks, "What inspires you to write? Do you have any tips for new young writers?"

PC: What inspires me to write is people. I spend two years meeting people, walking, wandering. And the second part, I have only one tip: Sit down and write. People want to be writers without writing. Don't care what people think. Or criticism. Or the fact that you'll be published or not. Just sit down and write. And then you're going to discover a whole universe inside yourself. You have to write because this is your dream. So write and the rest will come.

GR: What are you reading now?

PC: Right now I'm reading Michael Hastings's book The Last Magazine, about Newsweek.

GR: Tell us about your writing process. I understand you have to find a white feather before you begin writing?

PC: Yeah. When I wrote my first book, I was doubtful if I should write or do something else. I told myself, "If I find a white feather, I'll write my first book." And since that, because I only write every second year, I have a trove of ideas. And as I told you about Adultery, it was not a book. It was a post. But immediately I saw it as a good idea. At the moment I find the white feather, I have to start writing. Yes.

Then I write nonstop from the beginning to the end. For me it is very feminine. When I'm writing, I'm a woman and I'm giving birth. So you have to do it quickly. I made love, then I got pregnant, and I have to deliver the baby. Otherwise I will die and the baby will die.

I write every day. Always procrastinating in the beginning. Then I sit down and I write the first sentence of the day, and I don't eat. I drink coffee and that's it. Two weeks of pain and pressure.

GR: Two weeks of only drinking coffee? What?

PC: No. Basically I'm in a kind of a trance. I am the characters. I am the feelings. I am the city. I'm not myself anymore. I'm being an instrument that is bigger than I am.

GR: So are you a horrible person to live with?

PC: Probably. But you can stand two weeks every two years. That is not difficult. I have 100 weeks where I'm a nice person.

GR: Do you write as soon as you wake up in the morning?

PC: First I say that I'm going to write as soon as I wake up. Then I postpone and postpone and start feeling guilty and horrible and feel that I don't deserve anything. Then I say, OK, today I'm not going to write. Then I write just to not feel guilty, and I'm going to write the first sentence. Then once I'm off the ground, the plane takes off...when I'm writing, I wake up around 12 o'clock because I write until 4 in the morning. Only two weeks.

Then of course, I have to make the corrections and do another draft. I have to correct the second draft. So the first draft has, let's say, one-third more pages than the final draft. So I start cutting.

GR: What books and authors have most influenced you?

PC: There are two. One is Jorge Luis Borges. But the one who really got me was Henry Miller. When I read Tropic of Cancer, I said one day I'm going to write like him.

Paulo Coelho photo by Marcos Borges (www.mborges.dk)

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Posted by Goodreads on August 5, 2014 Paulo Coelho is a man of contradiction. The 67-year-old Brazilian author is an unparalleled success-known for his 1988 bestseller, The Alchemist, which is the most translated book in the world by a living author-yet he sees himself as a dreamer and a depressive.

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Alchemist review

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Summary, Analysis, and Review of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Chapter 8

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Summary, Analysis, and Review of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Chapter 8

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Paulo Coelho

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Favourite quotes

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Paulo Coelho is a best selling self-development author, and most famous for writing the book 'The Alchemist', which has sold million of copies worldwide.

It's also one of my favorite books of all time.

We've put together this collection of the best Paulo Coelho quotes:

53 Incredible Paulo Coelho Quotes

1. "'That's how love got lost,' he said. 'When we started laying down rules for when love should or shouldn't appear.'" - Paulo Coelho

2. "But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for." - Paulo Coelho

3. "Emotions are wild horses. It is not explanations that carry us forward, but our will to go on." - Paulo Coelho

4. "If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule - Never lie to yourself." - Paulo Coelho

5. "It takes huge effort to free yourself from memory." - Paulo Coelho

6. "No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it." - Paulo Coelho

7. "Tears are words that need to be written." - Paulo Coelho

8. "The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us." - Paulo Coelho

9. "There are moments when people are incapable of understanding happiness." - Paulo Coelho

10th of 53 Paulo Coelho Quotes

10. "When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself." - Paulo Coelho

11. "When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision." - Paulo Coelho

12. "A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires." - Paulo Coelho

13. "Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere." - Paulo Coelho

14. "Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own." - Paulo Coelho

15. "If you want to see a rainbow you have to learn to see the rain." - Paulo Coelho

16. "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." - Paulo Coelho

17. "No one can hit their target with their eyes closed." - Paulo Coelho

18. "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." - Paulo Coelho

19. "The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." - Paulo Coelho

20th of 53 Paulo Coelho Quotes

20. "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." - Paulo Coelho

21. "When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive." - Paulo Coelho

22. "You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his personal legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't a true love...The love that speaks the language of the world." - Paulo Coelho

23. "All battles in life serve to teach us something, even the battles we lose." - Paulo Coelho

24. "Don't explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you." - Paulo Coelho

25. "Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?" - Paulo Coelho

26. "If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello." - Paulo Coelho

27. "Life has a way of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once." - Paulo Coelho

28. "One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted. Do it now." - Paulo Coelho

29. "The act of discovering who we are will force us to accept that we can go further than we think." - Paulo Coelho

30th of 53 Paulo Coelho Quotes

30. "The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them." - Paulo Coelho

31. "They were seeking out the treasure of their destiny, without actually wanting to live out their destiny." - Paulo Coelho

32. "When we love, we always strive to become better than we are." - Paulo Coelho

33. "You start living for the obsession alone... You want to arrive somewhere regardless of whether you're enjoying the road or not." - Paulo Coelho

34. "At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie." - Paulo Coelho

35. "Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart." - Paulo Coelho

36. "God is love, generosity and forgiveness; If we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyze us." - Paulo Coelho

37. "In love lies the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we are to the spiritual experience" - Paulo Coelho

38. "Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny." - Paulo Coelho

39. "People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of." - Paulo Coelho

40th of 53 Paulo Coelho Quotes

40. "The enemy is only a pretext to test our strength" - Paulo Coelho

41. "The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love." - Paulo Coelho

42. "To realize one's personal legend is one's only true obligation." - Paulo Coelho

43. "When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too." - Paulo Coelho

44. "Be Brave. Take Risks. Nothing can substitute experience." - Paulo Coelho

45. "Don't waste your time with explanations, people only hear what they want to hear." - Paulo Coelho

46. "If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal." - Paulo Coelho

47. "It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn." - Paulo Coelho

48. "Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there." - Paulo Coelho

49. "People want to change everything and, at the same time want it all to remain the same." - Paulo Coelho

50. "The moment of that kiss contained every happy moment I had ever lived." - Paulo Coelho

51. "The world is divided into those who understand me and those who don't. In the case of the latter, I simply leave them to torment themselves trying to gain my sympathy." - Paulo Coelho

52. "Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful." - Paulo Coelho

53. "When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way." - Paulo Coelho

Summary

Thanks for viewing this collection of the best Paulo Coelho quotes! Don't forget to share them on social media.

Which were your favorite Paulo Coelho quotes? Leave a comment below.

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53 Incredible Paulo Coelho Quotes (2021) | Wealthy Gorilla

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Paulo Coelho is a best selling self-development author, and most famous for writing the book 'The Alchemist', which has sold million of copies worldwide. It's also one of my favorite books of all time. We've put together this collection of the best Paulo Coelho quotes: 53 Incredible Paulo Coelho Quotes 1.

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Paulo Coelho Bio graphy

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Paulo Coelho & Christina Oiticica Foundation

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Paulo Coelho de Souza is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Alchemist. In 2014, he uploaded his personal papers online to create a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation.

Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded, "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?" At 17, Coelho's introversion and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Born into a Catholic family, his parents were strict about the religion and faith. Coelho later remarked that "It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do... They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me." At his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started using drugs in the 1960s.

Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to Coelho being associated with magic and occultism, due to the content of some songs. In 1974, Coelho was arrested for "subversive" activities by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.

In 1980 Coelho married artist Christina Oiticica. Together they had previously spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro and the other half in a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France, but now the pair reside permanently in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In an interview, Coelho stated "[In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water - to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer." Coelho would leave his lucrative career as a songwriter and pursue writing full-time.

In 1996, he founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides support to children and the elderly.

Coelho posts up to three times a week at his blog, and has millions of fans on both Facebook and Twitter. He discussed his relationship with readers through social media platforms with The Wall Street Journal in August 2014. Another development came in November 2014, when he finished uploading around 80,000 documents-manuscripts, diaries, photos, reader letters, press clippings-and created a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation, together with the physical foundation which is based in Geneva.

Writing career

In 1982, Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make a substantial impact. In 1986 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves since he considered it "of bad quality." After making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage that was published in the year 1987. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist took off. HarperCollins decided to publish the book in 1994. Later it became an international bestseller.

While trying to overcome his procrastination of launching his writing career, Coelho said, "If I see a white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new book." Coelho found a white feather in the window of a shop, and began writing that day. Since the publication of The Alchemist, Coelho has generally written at least one novel every two years. Three of them - The Pilgrimage, Hippie, The Valkyries and Aleph - are autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are broadly fictional. Other books, like Maktub, The Manual of the Warrior of Light and Like the Flowing River, are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings. His work has been published in more than 170 countries and translated into eighty-one languages. Together, his books have sold in the hundreds of millions. On 22 December 2016, Coelho was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 200 most influential contemporary authors.

Reaction to his writing has not been without controversy, however. Though he was raised in a Catholic family, and describes himself as of that faith even now, his stance has been described as incompatible with the Catholic faith, because of its New Age, pantheist and relativist contents. And whatever his sales, reviews of Coelho's later work consistently note its superficiality.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

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Paulo Coelho de Souza is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Alchemist. In 2014, he uploaded his personal papers online to create a virtual Paulo Coelho Foundation. Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer.

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Paulo Coelho's Top 10 Rules For Success

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Paulo Coelho's Top 10 Rules For Success (@paulocoelho)

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The Alchemist

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PART ONE

The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood.

He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it.

He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows.

It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the half-destroyed roof.

I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended.

He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food and water. "They are so used to me that they know my schedule," he muttered. Thinking about that for a moment, he realized that it could be the other way around: that it was he who had become accustomed to their schedule.

But there were certain of them who took a bit longer to awaken. The boy prodded them, one by one, with his crook, calling each by name. He had always believed that the sheep were able to understand what he said. So there were times when he read them parts of his books that had made an impression on him, or when he would tell them of the loneliness or the happiness of a shepherd in the fields. Sometimes he would comment to them on the things he had seen in the villages they passed.

But for the past few days he had spoken to them about only one thing: the girl, the daughter of a merchant who lived in the village they would reach in about four days. He had been to the village only once, the year before. The merchant was the proprietor of a dry goods shop, and he always demanded that the sheep be sheared in his presence, so that he would not be cheated. A friend had told the boy about the shop, and he had taken his sheep there.

*

"I need to sell some wool," the boy told the merchant.

The shop was busy, and the man asked the shepherd to wait until the afternoon. So the boy sat on the steps of the shop and took a book from his bag.

"I didn't know shepherds knew how to read," said a girl's voice behind him.

The girl was typical of the region of Andalusia, with flowing black hair, and eyes that vaguely recalled the Moorish conquerors.

"Well, usually I learn more from my sheep than from books," he answered. During the two hours that they talked, she told him she was the merchant's daughter, and spoke of life in the village, where each day was like all the others. The shepherd told her of the Andalusian countryside, and related the news from the other towns where he had stopped. It was a pleasant change from talking to his sheep.

"How did you learn to read?" the girl asked at one point.

"Like everybody learns," he said. "In school."

"Well, if you know how to read, why are you just a shepherd?"

The boy mumbled an answer that allowed him to avoid responding to her question. He was sure the girl would never understand. He went on telling stories about his travels, and her bright, Moorish eyes went wide with fear and surprise. As the time passed, the boy found himself wishing that the day would never end, that her father would stay busy and keep him waiting for three days. He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever. With the girl with the raven hair, his days would never be the same again.

But finally the merchant appeared, and asked the boy to shear four sheep. He paid for the wool and asked the shepherd to come back the following year.

*

And now it was only four days before he would be back in that same village. He was excited, and at the same time uneasy: maybe the girl had already forgotten him. Lots of shepherds passed through, selling their wool.

"It doesn't matter," he said to his sheep. "I know other girls in other places."

But in his heart he knew that it did matter. And he knew that shepherds, like seamen and like traveling salesmen, always found a town where there was someone who could make them forget the joys of carefree wandering.

The day was dawning, and the shepherd urged his sheep in the direction of the sun. They never have to make any decisions, he thought. Maybe that's why they always stay close to me.

The only things that concerned the sheep were food and water. As long as the boy knew how to find the best pastures in Andalusia, they would be his friends. Yes, their days were all the same, with the seemingly endless hours between sunrise and dusk; and they had never read a book in their young lives, and didn't understand when the boy told them about the sights of the cities. They were content with just food and water, and, in exchange, they generously gave of their wool, their company, and-once in a while-their meat.

If I became a monster today, and decided to kill them, one by one, they would become aware only after most of the flock had been slaughtered, thought the boy. They trust me, and they've forgotten how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to nourishment.

The boy was surprised at his thoughts. Maybe the church, with the sycamore growing from within, had been haunted. It had caused him to have the same dream for a second time, and it was causing him to feel anger toward his faithful companions. He drank a bit from the wine that remained from his dinner of the night before, and he gathered his jacket closer to his body. He knew that a few hours from now, with the sun at its zenith, the heat would be so great that he would not be able to lead his flock across the fields. It was the time of day when all of Spain slept during the summer. The heat lasted until nightfall, and all that time he had to carry his jacket. But when he thought to complain about the burden of its weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had withstood the cold of the dawn.

We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was grateful for the jacket's weight and warmth.

The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy. His purpose in life was to travel, and, after two years of walking the Andalusian terrain, he knew all the cities of the region. He was planning, on this visit, to explain to the girl how it was that a simple shepherd knew how to read. That he had attended a seminary until he was sixteen. His parents had wanted him to become a priest, and thereby a source of pride for a simple farm family. They worked hard just to have food and water, like the sheep. He had studied Latin, Spanish, and theology. But ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing God and learning about man's sins. One afternoon, on a visit to his family, he had summoned up the courage to tell his father that he didn't want to become a priest. That he wanted to travel.

*

"People from all over the world have passed through this village, son," said his father. "They come in search of new things, but when they leave they are basically the same people they were when they arrived. They climb the mountain to see the castle, and they wind up thinking that the past was better than what we have now. They have blond hair, or dark skin, but basically they're the same as the people who live right here."

"But I'd like to see the castles in the towns where they live," the boy explained.

"Those people, when they see our land, say that they would like to live here forever," his father continued.

"Well, I'd like to see their land, and see how they live," said his son.

"The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can afford to travel," his father said. "Amongst us, the only ones who travel are the shepherds."

"Well, then I'll be a shepherd!"

His father said no more. The next day, he gave his son a pouch that held three ancient Spanish gold coins.

"I found these one day in the fields. I wanted them to be a part of your inheritance. But use them to buy your flock. Take to the fields, and someday you'll learn that our countryside is the best, and our women the most beautiful."

And he gave the boy his blessing. The boy could see in his father's gaze a desire to be able, himself, to travel the world-a desire that was still alive, despite his father's having had to bury it, over dozens of years, under the burden of struggling for water to drink, food to eat, and the same place to sleep every night of his life.

*

The horizon was tinged with red, and suddenly the sun appeared. The boy thought back to that conversation with his father, and felt happy; he had already seen many castles and met many women (but none the equal of the one who awaited him several days hence). He owned a jacket, a book that he could trade for another, and a flock of sheep. But, most important, he was able every day to live out his dream. If he were to tire of the Andalusian fields, he could sell his sheep and go to sea. By the time he had had enough of the sea, he would already have known other cities, other women, and other chances to be happy. I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise.

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PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there.

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Extract from Paulo Coelho's book Hippie

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In September 1970, two sites squared off for the title of the center of the world: Piccadilly Circus, in London, and Dam Square, in Amsterdam. But not everyone knew this: if you asked most people, they'd have told you: "The White House, in the US, and the Kremlin in the USSR." These people tended to get their information from newspapers, television, radio, media that were already entirely outdated and that would never regain the relevance they had when first invented.

In September 1970, airplane tickets were outrageously expensive, which meant only the rich could travel. OK, that wasn't entirely true for an enormous number of young people whom these outdated media outlets could see only for their outward appearance: they wore their hair long, dressed in bright-colored clothing, and never took a bath (which was a lie, but these young kids didn't read the newspaper, and the older generation believed any news item that served to denigrate those they considered "a danger to society and common decency"). They were a danger to an entire generation of diligent young boys and girls trying to succeed in life, with their horrible example of lewdness and "free love," as their detractors liked to say with disdain. Well, this ever-growing number of kids had a system for spreading news that no one, absolutely no one, ever managed to detect.

The "Invisible Post" couldn't be bothered to discuss the latest Volkswagen or the new powdered soaps that had just been launched around the globe. It limited its news to the next great trail awaiting exploration by those insolent, dirty kids practicing "free love" and wearing clothes no one with any taste would ever put on. The girls with their braided hair covered in flowers, their long dresses, bright-colored shirts and no bras, necklaces of all shapes and sizes; the boys with their hair and beards that hadn't been cut for months. They wore faded jeans with tears from overuse because jeans were expensive everywhere in the world- except for the US, where they'd emerged from the ghetto of factory workers and were worn at all the major open-air shows in and around San Francisco.

The "Invisible Post" existed because people were always going to these concerts, swapping ideas about where they ought to meet next, how they could explore the world without jumping aboard one of those tourist buses where a guide described the sights while the younger people grew bored and the old people dozed. And so, thanks to word of mouth, everyone knew where the next concert was to take place or where to find the next great trail to be explored. No one had any financial restrictions because, in this community, everyone's favorite author wasn't Plato or Aristotle or comics from some artist who'd attained celebrity status; the big book, which almost no one who traveled to the Old Continent did so without, went by the name Europe on 5 Dollars a Day. With this book, everyone could find out where to stay, what to see, where to eat, where to meet, and where to catch live music while hardly spending a thing. Frommer's only error at the time was having limited his guide to Europe. Were there not perhaps other interesting places to see? Weren't there those who would rather go to India than to Paris? Frommer would address this failing a few years later, but until such time the "Invisible Post" took it upon itself to promote a South American itinerary ending at the once-"lost" city of Machu Picchu, with the warning not to mention anything to those who were outside of the hippie culture, lest the place be invaded by wild animals with cameras and extensive explanations (quickly forgotten) about how a band of Indians had created a city so well concealed it could be discovered only from above-something they considered impossible, since men did not fly.

Let's be fair: there was a second enormous bestseller, though not as popular as Frommer's book, which appealed more to those who had already flirted with socialism, Marxism, and anarchy; each of these phases always ended in deep disillusionment with the system invented by those who professed that "it was inevitable that the workers of the world would seize power." Or that "religion is the opium of the masses," which only proved that whoever uttered such a stupid statement understood little about the masses and even less about opium: among the things these poorly dressed kids believed in were God, gods, goddesses, angels, that sort of thing. The only problem is that the book, The Morning of the Magicians, written by the Frenchman Louis Pauwels and the Russian Jacques Bergier-mathematician, exspy, tireless student of the occult-said exactly the opposite of political manuals: the world is made up of the most interesting things. There were alchemists, wizards, Cathars, Templars, and other words that meant it never had much success in the bookstores. A single copy was read by-at a minimum-ten people, given its exorbitant price. Anyway, Machu Picchu was in this book, and everyone wanted to go there, to Peru, and that's where you could find young people from all over the world (well, all over the world is a bit of an exaggeration, because those who lived in the Eastern Bloc didn't have the easiest time leaving their respective countries).

Anyway, getting back to our story: young people from all corners of the globe who had managed at least one priceless good known as a "passport" met up on the so-called hippie trails. No one knew exactly what the word "hippie" meant, and it didn't much matter. Perhaps it meant "a large tribe without a leader" or "delinquents who don't steal," or all the other descriptions we already covered earlier in this chapter.

Passports, these tiny little books issued by governments and placed along with cash (a lot or little, it doesn't really matter) inside a belt worn around the waist, served two purposes. The first, as we all know, was for crossing borders-as long as the border guards didn't get caught up in the news reports and decide to send someone back because they weren't accustomed to those clothes and that hair, or those flowers and those necklaces and those beads and those smiles belonging to people who seemed to live in a constant state of ecstasy-a state normally, though often unjustly, attributed to diabolical drugs that, according to the press, these young people consumed in ever greater quantities.

A passport's second purpose was to get its owner out of extreme situations where they'd run out of money and had nowhere to appeal for help. In such cases, the "Invisible Post" always provided much-needed information regarding locations where a passport might be sold. The price varied according to the country: a passport from Sweden, where everyone was blond, tall, and blue-eyed, wasn't worth much, since it could be resold only to those who were blond, tall, and blue-eyed, and so these were never the most sought-after. But a Brazilian passport was worth a fortune on the black market-the country was home not only to the blond, tall, and blue-eyed, but also to those who were tall and short, black people with dark eyes, Asians with narrow eyes, others of mixed race, Indians, Arabs, Jews; in other words, an enormous cultural melting pot that made a Brazilian passport one of the most coveted on the planet.

Once he'd sold this passport, the original owner would go to his country's consulate and, feigning horror and distress, explain that he'd been mugged and everything taken-he was completely out of money and had no passport. The consulates of wealthier countries would furnish a new passport and a free flight back to a traveler's country of origin, an offer immediately declined under the allegation that "somebody owes me a hefty sum, I need to get what's mine before I go." The poorer countries, often governed by harsh regimes in the hands of generals, would conduct a veritable interrogation to determine whether the applicant wasn't on a list of "terrorists" wanted for subversion. Once they'd verified that the young woman (or man) had a clean record, these countries were bound, against their will, to issue the new document. And they never offered a return flight, because they had no interest in having such derelicts influence generations that had been raised to respect God, family, and property.

Returning to the trails: after Machu Picchu, the next hot spot was Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia. Then Lhasa, in Tibet, where it was difficult to enter because, according to the "Invisible Post," there was a war between monks and Chinese soldiers. Of course it was difficult to imagine such a war, but everyone took it seriously and wasn't about to risk an endless trip to later end up a prisoner to the monks or the soldiers. The last of the era's great philosophers, who had just split up in April of that year, had a short time before proclaimed that the greatest wisdom on the planet was to be found in India. That was enough to send all the world's young people to the country in search of wisdom, knowledge, gurus, vows of poverty, enlightenment, and communion with My Sweet Lord.

The "Invisible Post," however, warned that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, famed guru to the Beatles, had tried to engage in sexual relations with Mia Farrow. The actress had always been unhappy in love through the years. She had traveled to India at the invitation of the Beatles, possibly in the hope of finding a cure for other traumas related to her sexuality, which seemed to hound her like bad karma.

But everything suggests that Farrow's bad karma had accompanied her, John, Paul, George, and Ringo on their trip. According to Farrow, she was meditating in the great seer's cave when he grabbed her and tried to force her into sexual relations. By this point in the trip, Ringo had already returned to England because his wife hated Indian food and Paul had also decided to abandon the retreat, convinced that it wasn't doing anything for him. Only George and John remained in the Maharishi's temple when Mia came looking for them, in tears, and told them what had happened. The two immediately packed their bags, and when the Enlightened One came to ask what was going on, Lennon gave him a bruising response:

"You're the fucking Enlightened One, are you not? You ought to be able to figure it out."

Now, in September 1970, women ruled the world-or, more precisely, young hippie women ruled the world. Wherever they went, the men did so knowing these women weren't about to be seduced by the latest trends-the women knew much more about the subject than the men did. And so the men decided to accept once and for all that they needed these women; they constantly wore an expression of yearning, as though begging, "Please protect me, I'm all alone and I can't find anyone, I think the world's forgotten me and love has forsaken me forever." The women had their pick of men and never gave a thought to marriage, only to having a good time enjoying wild, intense sex. When it came to the important things, and even the most superficial and irrelevant, they had the last word. However, when the "Invisible Post" brought news of Mia Farrow's alleged sexual assault and Lennon's reaction, these women immediately decided to change their itineraries.

A new hippie trail was created, from Amsterdam (Holland) to Kathmandu (Nepal), on a bus that charged a fare of approximately a hundred dollars and traveled through countries that must have been pretty interesting: Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and part of India (a great distance from the Maharishi's temple, it's worth noting). The trip lasted three weeks and an insane number of miles.

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In September 1970, two sites squared off for the title of the center of the world: Piccadilly Circus, in London, and Dam Square, in Amsterdam. But not everyone knew this: if you asked most people, they'd have told you: "The White House, in the US, and the Kremlin in the USSR."

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Movies based on Paulo Coelho's books

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Movies based on paulo coelho books Nope. But I think anyone who has read the book will agree what a wonderful one it is. I think I read somewhere that Coelho, when asked in an., Sony's TriStar To Turn Paulo Coelho Novel 'The Alchemist' into film - Deadline

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Paulo Coelho Quiz

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Questions about works written by Paulo Coelho: What was the name of the principal character (the hero) in the Alchemist, In which novel of Paulo Coelho ,...

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Paulo Coelho Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images

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Find the perfect Paulo Coelho stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Select from premium Paulo Coelho of the highest quality.

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PROFILE

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Books