How many times have I told you not to believe everything you hear? Seek truth for yourself. - Isabel Allende

I was a romantic and sentimental creature, with a tendency towards solitude.

Nu suntem bătrâni pentru că am împlinit șaptezeci. Începem să îmbătrânim din clipa nașterii, ne schimbăm zi după zi, viața e o curgere continuă. Evoluăm. Singura deosebire este că acum suntem ceva mai aproape de moarte. Și ce e rău în asta? Dragostea și prietenia nu îmbătrânesc.

You think in words, for you, language is an inexhaustible thread you weave as if life were created as you tell it. I think in the frozen images of a photograph. Not an image on a plate, but one traced by a fine pen, a small and perfect memory with the soft volumes and warm colors of a Renaissance painting, like an intention captured on grainy paper or cloth. It is a prophetic moment; it is our entire existence, all we have lived and have yet to live, all times in one time, without beginning or end. From an indefinite distance I am looking at that picture, which includes me. I am spectator and protagonist. I am in shadow, veiled by the fog of a translucent curtain. I know I am myself, but I am also this person observing from outside. (from Prologue)