“Where does taste end and smell begin?”

— Isabel Allende, "Language of Flowers", in The Sweet Breathing of Plants, 2001

About Isabel Allende

Born 1942

Chilean-American novelist, author of "The House of the Spirits".

“Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy; it's silent, tranquil, and gentle.”

“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.”

“Silence before being born, silence after death: life is nothing but noise between two unfathomable silences.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.”

“All progress means war with Society.”

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”