In what do you believe? I believe in dreams, in man and in the goddess. Should one listen to ones heart or brain?

Or a mixture of both? The world is a mixture of matter and spirit so: listen to your brain whenever you need to make material and practical decisions. But listen to your heart whenever the problem at hand concerns your dreams and hopes. How do you make peace with a negative past and with those who have wronged you? This is indeed a very personal question and there are certainly many ways for a person to deal with this. I think though that first you need to accept your past and try to forgive those that have wronged you. But forgiving does not mean you have forgotten. In order to move from the past to the present you need to accept your scars. But you need to do everything in your power in order to heal them so that the ghosts of your past will no longer barge in your present life. It is a long and difficult process I grant you but its a way out of guilt and hatred in my eyes. How does one keep enthusiasm, especially when you meet people who are well...? Scary and mean? Its normal that we dont always keep our enthusiasm in front of obstacles. Indeed some people truly make an effort in destroying our plans and hopes and so they appear as evil. But in these moments, if you are able to remind yourself of the reason of your actions and also see that those that are committed in creating pain around them are actually their first victims then you may at least find an extra dose of consolation in your path. Ally yourself with those that wish you the best and dont give strength to those that want to you see down. Dont even grant them the right to be called your enemies. What is fear? Contrary to what we believe, fear does not arise because we feel utterly alone. If we were totally alone there wouldnt be anything to fear. Actually fear comes from the fact that we imagine there are forces ready to attack us, things that escape from our power to understand.

Our fear arises from what we cant grasp. What we dont understand is actually what feels us with dread. The moment we realize that things that go beyond our knowledge are not harmful, then the object of fear disappears. How does someone know that you are doing what you are meant to be doing in this life? When they feel enthusiasm(excitement) in their hearts. Without this inner light, our actions become senseless. Do anything which excites you, otherwise do not anything else because any activity which is done without excitement will lose its purpose. What are for you an outstanding literary work and / or writer? Writers that manage to change peoples perception and consequently their lives are to me the greatest writers. In my particular case, writers such as Henri Miller, Khalil Gibran, William Blake and Jorge Luis Borges changed my life. They showed me that the world was much bigger, richer than I could have phantom on my own. They also gave the thirst to experience life and this is was my life saver. I wonder if there is anything like unconditional love? Why does love cause hurt, if its unconditional? Definitely there is unconditional love. This love, in its very core, comes from within. It is what moves us in the direction of our true selves. Theres a beautiful quote in the Upanishads that states: In all persons, all creatures, the Self is the innermost essence. And it is identical with Brahman: our real Self is not different from the ultimate Reality called God. Be careful when you say that love hurts it is not love that is painful, but its absence. How can we be able to retain good values in ourselves? I dont see this from this perspective I dont think we retain good values. This would mean that we would be trying to keep inside ourselves things that ultimately do not belong to us. In a way your question is quite revealing of what society tries to instill in us: to be able to retain the rules of dos and donts of others. I see good values in a different way; I see them in the sense of a greater understanding and joy. This can only be found within our souls not outside from us. We have then to tap into this

source that is available in virtually all of us. This is the moment when we identify, in the silence of ourselves, the greater light, the greater path. Once we recognize this inner fountain, we stop retaining and actually become instruments of a higher purpose: to love without questions, without the seeking of a reward. This is the only value, in my eyes, that truly matters. Why do we feel the need to protect ourselves from happiness? We often run away from happiness because of guilt: of reaching our goals, our accomplishing our dreams. It is a very bizarre logic we keep on striving to be happy and once we manage to achieve our goal we feel we dont disserve it. Actually, we wish to entertain an image of ourselves as victims and this in my eyes is just another way of being vain. We torture ourselves because we would like to be something we are not and this is why we turn away from happiness. In my eyes, to be able to accept happiness is to forgive ourselves and accept ourselves as we truly are not as we would wish ourselves to be. Acceptance and humility are the cornerstones of joy. Does living have any finality? Do I truly have a mission? Or is my passage in this world a matter of chance? Its impossible for any human being to answer your question with utter authority. But I see your question from another angle : what happens if you were to discover that life is meaningless? As you can see theres a contradiction in here. If you are to know something about life, it will always be something that you can understand even if its absurd. As you can see, you cant escape from meaning and therefore I take the stand that theres a mission for each and every one of us: to live the life that we choose. To accomplish our mission is to walk the path of our personal legend. Last but not least if are passage in this world is a matter of chance embrace that chance. Its a miracle. I think in economic crisis the main problem of Igor, the main character of your new novel The Winner Stands Alone, will be to save his business but not love. What you think about this? And what you think about crisis?

Interesting that you mention the crisis because, in my eyes, this book talks exactly about the excesses that led to the current situation. The constant race for power, money, glamour, are the outward signs of a society that has made consumption the alpha and omega of human conduct. In this scenario, when a person is merely what he/she consumes, wears, and pretends she gradually slips into this image, this collective illusion of perfection. But this collective dream reveals only that in order to exist you need to have instead of simply being. The crisis is bringing with its chaos, a sort of readjustment: people are realizing that there are other priorities and that they should focus on quality of life rather than this frantic race for quantity.

My question to you is: What you say about those like me who are workaholics and have a need to keep striving for acknowledgements for others instead of self-fulfillment? Being a workaholic myself, the only solution I found was allying my work with my mission. It was a very long process, but becoming a writer helped me a lot in achieving this fragile equilibrium. How exactly do you pray? I pray three times a day when I wake up, then at 18h and when I go to bed. These are conventional prayers that I do every single day since I think that it is very important to be rigorous in the spiritual quest. Having said this, I see myself praying many times throughout the day sometimes because of an unexpected joy, sometimes because of my fears, sometimes because of a wish I need to make. More importantly, I pray through my work that I perform with great love, and through my life. To live intensively and with joy is the best way of praying. If the world conspires to make a dream come true, then why are so many dreams unrealized? Youre skipping the first part of the sentence: when you really want something, the world conspires to make a dream come true. Mind you, some people dont truly want something or sometimes want things that in the end wont truly help them. The Universe is a merely and echo of our desires, may they be constructive or destructive ones.

You said in the past that you can learn love in all its forms from women, and discipline from men. Which were the stages of love in your life as related to the women you have loved? And what about men who have marked your existence? This is a very long answer, and I dont want to simplify, so probably I will resume by saying that we need to understand that love justifies life, and that we have to fight with enthusiasm and discipline for people and things that are important to us, otherwise life will be like a Sunday afternoon, plenty of time, but the most boring day in the week. What is your best advise to a young man who wants to fulfill his dreams? Pay the price, Anders. Dont be afraid to make mistakes. You will learn while walking. I would like to know how you delt/deal with the restlessness that some people -including me- struggles with? I am also struggling with myself all the time, but I am very optimistic in this sense. People are realizing more and more that happiness is freedom, and freedom is to be able to travel light, not possessing a lot of things, because at the end of the day, the things start to possess you. I remember that I considered buying a castle in France. I went to see some. One day I realized that if I buy a castle, I cannot think about anything but taking care of it. Therefore, I bought a small watermill, so to keep it is very easy, and I have time to go to the mountains, to walk, do spend my life in the way that I would like. In short: the less you have to keep, the more you have in freedom. And one of the lessons nature teaches you is exactly that: keep your contradictions, as summer is the opposite of winter.

Best piece of advice you have ever been given? Dont follow advices. Try it yourself.

Do you accept the thought of an intellectual elite, if yes what is its responsibility? I believe that a taxi driver and a writer or a gardener can have the same connection with life, and can learn everything if they do their work with love. I do believe that Jesus learned everything while working as a carpenter. It is our attitude towards this life that will inspire us. Be open, take your risks, dare to do something different, this is what life is all about. Doctor and writer Nikolai Amosov once said: There is one particular thing about the old age: there is no future. Are you afraid of old age?

I think that one doesnt need to be afraid of old age as long as one tends to ones inner garden, to ones soul. Age then does to the person the exact same thing as it does to wine it gets better with time. The most beautiful thing in my eyes is to be in front of an elderly person that has this serenity and authority that only time bestows in those that are wise. Do you think fame always accompanies a genius or can a genius live without it? Even though fame is an easy concept to define in todays world, I think its much more difficult to define a genius. Yet, having said that, for me a genius is a person that allies the intelligence of the heart with good sense. Examples of geniuses in my view are Mandela and Gandhi. They are known men but I dont know if the laurels of this world always go to the people of most merit. Fortunately there are great men that we hear of, but there are many others that work in silence and these are in my view, the true warriors of light. I understand that your message is to follow our dreams. But what happens after we realize our dream? Should we feel complete fulfillment? And if yes then how does it feel? I found that I never feel completely content. Does it mean that I follow wrong dreams? I would imagine that when I feel completely at peace that means that I realized the right dream. Realizing our dreams is a daily effort. Theres no such thing as the end of the line in this field. So not only can I understand your dissatisfaction as well as I share the same feeling. Im never satisfied and I never look upon my dream being a writer as totally accomplished. Life is about new challenges. Total peace can only be found in death, in my eyes. Ive always wondered why is it that society, especially western society, has equated misery with holiness? It is obvious that as the Buddha once said, Life is suffering however, people seem to have this preconceived notion that the more I suffer, especially unnecessarily, the holier I will be to God/society. Similarly why dont people strive for joy instead of trying to avoid suffering? I dont knowmaybe its just me, but these religious beliefs seem irreligious to me. This is also a question I pondered over many times in my life. Why all this guilt, why the preconceived notion that depriving oneself from the joys of life may bring some sort of afterlife reward? Why is it that the image of Jesus in the cross, suffering, is the one that is used by the Church? I dont know how or when exactly this notion of suffering became the rule especially in the Christian faith but what I do know is that the religious experience goes beyond this vision. Compassion in my eyes is the real message of the great messengers of Humanity. Its by

focusing on their examples of life, their experience and their message that we can clearly see that there is a way out of all this guilt, which ultimately is this fear that binds and blinds people. How were you dealing with the times that you strongly wanted to follow a dream, but in the same time, you have to deal with a more important priority, like education, work or family? How can you tame that wild child inside that needs to be pleased? Im afraid I cant really help you with this question because I never refused the wild child within. Those who truly love you will encourage you to follow your dream and let this tremendous amount of enthusiasm and energy manifest itself. What is your definition of Personal Legend? Why is it so important to recognize? Dear Phil, The personal legend is your distinctive path in this world. It is dictated by your own standards not the ones society or family imposes to you. It is in a way your destiny but with this subtlety: you choose to realize your goal in life. It is not something that is independent of your will. The importance of this, for me at least, is obvious: you live your life according to your own rules and walk your path with enthusiasm. I have long thought of an inner voice, something that is inherent to all of us, just to have people look at me as if I am crazy. My question is this: is this voice innate? Is this second voice or inner voice tempered or changed by our life and its past experiences, or is it something that is part of our consciousness from the moment of our birth, and it says what it says to us regardless of our experiences? Can we change what it says, or is it there from God regardless of what we live through. Is it simply our conscious? And how do you know that you are listening to this voice and it is being true to you, and doesnt have a selfish agenda fueled by its own selfish motives? To be able to hear our inner voice is in itself a journey. This inward quest for our true self may seem alien at first but as a north star it guides us, as long as we have faith. I dont think it is consciousness that guides us to our inner self it is actually something that is outside of ourselves that murmur to our soul. To be able to distinguish the true voice from our desires is also a path: in the beginning there will be many mistakes, false leads. But with time and forgiveness, we start hearing this voice more clearly and we develop our own silenced alphabet.

What does Jesus Christ mean to you? In my book, The Witch of Portobello, the main character, Athena, at one point cant take the communion. This is for her a turning point where she understands that inside the catholic dogma theres no space for true forgiveness, that the Church has inflexible rules that sadly too often exclude believers. I remembered, while writing this scene a passage from Dostoyevskys where the inquisitor feels obliged to incarcerate Jesus because hes not convenient for the clerical institution. So, for me, as I wrote in my book, Jesus is the one that is standing outside the church, telling Athena, as well as all the people that are excluded and repudiated by the strict dogmas of the church: My child, Ive been excluded too. Its a very long time since theyve allowed me in there. We know your messages from your books, but can you summerize with your own words, whats are the most important things of a human life ? Not to be paralysed by fear in the path of our dreams.

After having read The Alchemist I concluded that one of the messages in the book was that what we are looking for is right in front of us. We just need to open our eyes and realize it. My question is: Are you planning on another book where you suggest a way how people can come this realization a little closer? Or do you have a suggestion right now you would like to share? Humans have always looked for a sense of purpose for their life. And there are essentially three ways to achieve this: Art, science and religion. But if science and religion meet we will have problems. Spirituality has nothing to do with whether you believe in God or not: it is an approach to life. During the twentieth century we experienced the dictatorship of science, which tells us that the world consists only of scientifically provable things. Thus the amazement and surprise of experiencing our souls were lost to us. But there are also emotions, and emotions play a very large role in our world. Therefore, being part of the human condition, my inspiration comes from my contact with other people. I am writing about great people and their steps, rules, recipes, principles they practiced in their life. For example Mahatma Gandhi and 7 Deadly Sins. I want to know, what are basic (important) principles for you (and that you advise to

others) to live happy life and die with a smile in your eyes. I want to write an article in this magazine about your life, but especially about your (according to you) secrets of happiness. I will be very glad to hear from you. There is not a secret for happiness, which for me is actually a very abstract notion. I think that what truly matters is ones commitment to life, to ones beliefs, to what one consider essential. Those who believe that in order to understand the world one has to be outside of it are falling in a trap. To be able to experience life is to be able to be in the center of its turmoil. For those that would like further insights on this, I suggest the movie Revolutionary Road. There is so much suffering, pain, ugliness in this world. Many of us watch it helplessly and many of us are also in its clutches and are its victims, what do we do? What would you offer a person in pain? Injustice exists and I cant pretend to have an answer for that. Im not a guru and I cant explain why bad things happen to honest people. Its also true that evil is much more visible than good. See how easy it is to destroy and how laborious it is to build. Nevertheless I think that we are all responsible if the world is the way it is. Thats why instead of looking for the guilty or weak, we should look at our attitudes and ourselves. We cannot set out to change the world but we can try to change ourselves. If we are capable of that: of mending our ways, of being generous to life, then we will be able to see that good is everywhere. Theres a wide range of heroes that work in silence and that try to enhance the state of the world. Once you said : To change onself is to change the world- when lately have you changed something in your life? How has that changed the world? We never realize these changes. Try to improve yourself, and then the world around you will improve. This is what I try to do; most of the time the changes are very subtle, but if you spread love, you receive love. If you spread hate, you will receive hate. What do you think are some of the most critical issues standing in the way of achieving peace in todays world? I would say that greed is what stands between humanity and peace. To see that wars are still fought for the sake of a privileged few is what perpetrates this endless circle of violence and hatred.

Is the journey more important than the destination? To have a destination is important. Its always advisable to know where youre heading. For instance, in the Road to Saint James, you need to know where you are. Its through this knowledge that you can organize your trip, but its the journey that you really enjoy. Once in Santiago, youre tired and you have finished your travel. Its at this precise moment that you realize that the destination is your passion and the path your joy. Paulo Coelho, the Latin American who became an icon in todays world. What do you dream of for the future, on a personal level as well as for humanity? My dream for the future is to live the present. It is only through ones presence in this world that things can truly manifest themselves. I believe that unfortunately too often men and women are absent from their actions and caught up in their fears, illusions and desires. One just needs to focus in the present moment and understand that the simplest things are the most extraordinary ones. With this knowledge everyone can first change itself and the world would simply follow. Who is Paulo Coelho, The Warrior of the Light? To those who want to follow your steps, what advice would you give them? In my wonderings I came to believe that a person has a personal legend to fulfill. What is a personal legend? It is the reason why we are alive. In my case this legend was to share my ideas with others through writing. We have dreams, that are not necessarily the dreams that our parents or society had for us. So, we must get rid of the idea of fulfilling what people expect us to do, and start to do what we expect from our lives. Dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other peoples destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you dont fear to share your heart, you are a free person. What was the goal of your life? Have you reached at it? My personal legend has always been to become a writer. Im glad I can say that Im fulfilling my dream. But this must not the interpreted as the end of the line on the contrary I have to commit everyday in order to stay in this path that Ive chosen. One is constantly challenged even by success. Whats love for you ?

Theres a motto in Alchemy: Concentrate and dissolve. As you may know alchemists would, through laboratory studies, try to distill the mercury from the sulfur and then refine the mercury until it converted into gold. This quest would lead them to the Philosopher Stone (which was the solid component) and the Long Life Elixir. All the process of distilling is based on this very simple motto: concentrate meaning extracting the essence and dissolve meaning mixing the essence with something else. Many disregard that through this routine, alchemists were also training their patience and thus transforming their perception of the world. I think you can apply this same motto to love: in order to preserve loves freedom, one has to be able at the same time to dive into its essence and to share it others. Your theory about every man could be special and reach everything he wants in life and even more, is really optimistic. But if the man tried once and was despaired and disappointed what is he going to do? There is sometimes a bit of confusion in regards to a passage of my book The Alchemist When you really want something, the world conspires to make a dream come true. Mind you, some people dont truly want something or sometimes want things that in the end wont truly help them. The Universe is a merely and echo of our desires, may they be constructive or destructive ones. One has also to keep in mind the difference between dream and obsession, which is the same difference that lies between personal legend and zahir. When you follow your the personal legend, you walk your path and learn from it. The objective doesnt blind you to the road that takes you there. In the other hand obsession is what prevents you from admiring the teachings of life. Its like trying to get to your objective without passing through the challenges. I realized that despite the fear and the bruises of life, one has to keep on fighting for ones dream. As Borges said in his writings there no other virtue than being brave. And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear. After I did a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I returned to the Catholic faith just because it is in my blood, not because it is the best religion. I dont think you can put God in a church. God is everywhere. All religions have advantages and disadvantages. God isas William Blake saidin a grain of sand and in a flower. This energy is everywhere.

Before and after you became an author, you continue to travel around the world. Which travel was most influential to you? Today. All wanderings are important since you can extract from anything in life a teaching, something that will make sense to you. You have to look at life itself is a pilgrimage. Every day is different, every day can have a magic moment, but we dont see the opportunity, because we think: Oh this is boring Im just commuting to work. But we are all on a pilgrimage whether we like it or not and the target, or goal, the real Santiago, if you like, is death. You must get as much as you can from the journey, because in the end the journey is all you have. It doesnt matter what you accumulate in terms of material wealth, because you are going to die anyway, so why not live? When you realize that you can be brave and that is the first tenant of any spiritual quest to take risks. Where you can find more knowledge about the universe that surrounds us? To be honest, I think that it is mainly by surrounding yourself to life and opening yourself to love that this is possible. Heres my question to you As an author that writes about his belief in Jesus through his stories, tell me how do you believe in no good or bad or no right or wrong, but sees them more as choices. I do believe in ONE law of ethics, and it happens to be not a Christian, but a Jewish one: dont do to your neighbour what you dont want your neighbour to do to you. If everybody would follow this only and simple sentence, the world would be better. (The Christians say: love your neighbour as you love yourself but sometimes either we dont love ourselves, or we try to impose our values to our neighbours). One could say there are just two kinds of people: The ones that believe in justice in this world, and the ones that dont. In which category do you fit? And why? I think that reducing the world to two kinds of people those that believe in justice and those that dont is too simple. To believe in justice is not the matter. The matter is: to apply Justice, to live according to the laws that you think are valid. When you start truly thinking about how you are living up to your standards of justice, you start, strangely enough, to perceive the world through other lenses. The judge of other peoples lives disappears. We are the building blocks of life change is in our hands.

We forget too often that the world is ourselves and the children our future. This man delicately put together by the hands of a child, brought back from the chaos of the world by innocent hands, needs to act. This Man is you and I and the world in each of us.

A chance to have a real choice. A chance to step out of the cycle of brutality and exploitation. But in order for them to be able to chose, we need first to look at the root of the problem and this problem is ourselves and our lack of vision.

What I propose to you today is this: we need to give ourselves a chance. We need to choose to act in favor of the worlds youths, using our resources and, above all, placing our faith in our future.

What represents Christmas today in a world less and less attached to faith? Christmas represents a moment of brotherhood, solidarity and love. If we have one moment in the year where people are able to look at their neighbor its already a giant leap towards a world without exclusion. You must have heard that there are numerous people who committed suicide from a sense failure. How do you view these incidents since you once said When you want something, you have to fight for it, then the whole universe will help you. But not the way that you expect it. In reality, is it a fact that not everyone will achieve what they want? The concept of Personal Legend is beyond our daily lives. Joseph Campbell used a different expression, Personal Bliss, and we all know, when we are young, that there is something in life that makes us full of joy, while other things bother us. This is what Personal Legend is all about: following the path of enthusiasm. People who committed suicide from a sense of failure normally do that because they are following their parents path, not their own. In The Alchemist there are words such as Philosophers stone, Soul of the world, Elixir of life, Emerald Tablet, Language of the world. Do you think these words will be able to communicate with the new generations who have mobile phones stuck in their ears all the

time? There is nothing wrong with mobile phones or Internet they make people get in touch, and this is wonderful. Having said that, the symbolic language is the only one capable of crossing the barriers of cultures and prejudices. Dance or music, for example, is purely symbolic, and thats why, when you go to a foreign country, the first thing that someone gives to you is a CD with local songs. Maturity, for me, it is the moment before decadence begins. We should not try to be mature, but to keep the sacred flame of youthful folly into our hearts. What is your general point of view of the new generation? If you could tell them something what would you say to them? Dare to be different. You are unique, and only who dares, wins. You are known as a writer with great influence on public. If you were the one who direct humanitarian activities, to which sphere of activity you would orientate humanitarianism : Sting is trying to rescue the tropical rain forest, Bono lectures to leaders of the strongest states, Sharon Stone collect financial resources for humanitarian purposes, Gilberto Gil is a Minister of Culture. Have you ever thought or wished to politically engaged? I think that it is everyones responsibility to be involved in ones community. Ive always been very skeptical about people that say: I want to save the world, help others! This is because to save the world is a Sisyphus project : too abstract to actually be put into practice. What is possible and the most difficult task is to first look at oneself and try to identify whats wrong. Before searching for the other, one has to find oneself. I took forty years to find myself to accept my dream: to become a writer. Only when I started to walk down the path of my personal legend was I able to honestly turn myself towards others: before that there were too many walls inside my soul. I looked around me and said: I cant change the world, I cant change my country, I cant change my city, I cant even change my neighborhood! what I can change is my street. Thats when I went to a favela in Rio favelas are in the center of the city and met a group of people that were taking care of children. Since then Ive been cooperating with them and now we take care of 430 children. With time I came to realize this: that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear. One of the questionings that keep on recurring in this book is Athenas need to live with her empty spaces. Does Paulo Coelho have empty spaces?

Of course I do. Who doesnt? The whole problem is not about having empty spaces, but about admitting that they exist. Todays society is so preoccupied about coherence that many get trapped in the misconception that all is explainable. Society tries to convince us that we have to be completely transparent, not only to world but to ourselves. There is where the danger lies. Its necessary to admit that some things cant be grasped, that our empty spaces exist and that we have to respect and honor the mystery. What is important? You never know. You can only unravel it during the journey. It all starts with a sign that takes you from a point to the next. Or makes you think about an action youre about to take. What you would do when you will know that your life will end after 5 day? So far, I lived my life fully, I made my mistakes, but I honored the miracle of being alive. I it happens that I will die in five days, I would change nothing that I do except, of course, for making some phone calls to say good bye to people that I love. Other than that, I would like to die alive because I know people who already died but they still behave like living people. They died because they allowed their dreams to be destroyed. You were hippie when you were young; you used drugs, were in mental hospital and were also political prisoner. What you would consider the biggest problem of nowadays youth? Absence of challenges Is it necessary to respond to violence with violence and to evil with evil? Is it possible to preserve good by doing evil? I may sound romantic, but when you use violence to fight violence, you generate more violence. We are free because we are committed without being forced to do so. Evil is more related to our attitudes to other people, and from other people towards us. Evil lives in the details. What events in your life did change you somehow? My life changes in a daily basis. Every day and this goes for everyone has a magic moment, which I have to seize and follow. As Carlos Castaneda says: every warrior has a cubic centimeter of good luck, and his wisdom consists in following this cubic centimeter. What is your life motto? Who dares, wins. It is obvious from your books, that contemporary world, or society, seems to you too oppressive, too uniform. That people live, as your heroine of the River Piedra, seeking,

what, in fact, they do not desire. In your opinion, what is the balance between traditions, prejudice, upbringing, etc. and personal responsibility of an individual for his/her own destiny? We cannot blame anybody but ourselves. Freud was a nice guy, but he created this idea that our parents are responsible for everything that went wrong with our adulthood. Of course, as Ortega y Gasset says, I am myself and my circumstance but everybody is different, and must accept this. The frustrated Marxist experiment reassured us that first comes our individuality, and our sense of responsibility towards our neighbor. Which one and which event was the most beautiful, the most important moment? The present moment. You said in the past that you can learn love in all its forms from women, and discipline from men. Which were the stages of love in your life as related to the women you have loved? And what about men who have marked your existence? This is a very long answer, and I dont want to simplify, so probably I will resume by saying that we need to understand that love justifies life, and that we have to fight with enthusiasm and discipline for people and things that are important to us, otherwise life will be like a Sunday afternoon, plenty of time, but the most boring day in the week. I would suggest everybody to write diaries, it helps a lot to solve our own conflicts. What has been the driving force in your life? Knowing that everybody has a purpose. We know when we are closer to our goal by listening to our heart. So, my driving force is to fulfill my destiny. Your work does not seem to be engaged with any sort of political or ideological group. Would it be correct to assume that you dont really have a commitment with any particular group, or is it me that cant read between the lines? My literature is totally committed with a new political attitude man in search of his own identity. It does not talk about the old and used up process of the right/left but there is a revolution that is slowly setting up and that the press doesnt seem to have detected it yet. If I had to sum up the whole idea in only one expression, Id say that the new political attitude for our era is to die alive. In other words, being aware and participating of things until the day we die something that does not occur very often people end up dying for the world on the day they renounce their dreams. After that, he/she departs to a journey like Ulysses did, accepting his

challenges and knowing that sometimes he will have to fight alone but understanding he indeed reflects the entire human race. The death of ideologies has not been announced. What has been announced is the death of a whole system of archaic thoughts. Men will always need an ideal because this is part of the human nature. All men in my view are like volcanoes. The mass accumulates but nothing is transformed in the surface. A man asks himself: will my life always be like this? In a given moment the process of eruption begins. If he is an intelligent man, he will allow the lava in the interior to leave and change the scenery in his surroundings, if he is not, then he will try to control the explosion. From then on, he will use all his energy in trying to keep the volcano under control. I have been pragmatic enough during my life to understand that in certain moments of my life, it is necessary to withstand the pain caused by the explosion in order to be able to enjoy the new scenery around me. There are many opinions as for why humanity is always searching for its own ethics. A friend of mine sent me a story once by the Internet about a man that used to tell his granddaughter about the two animals that used to inhabit his soul: a dog that protected it, and a wolf that used to devour anything it could find around. The granddaughter asks him then which one of the two was the strongest, to what the man answers: the strongest is always the one I feed the most, depending on the circumstances. The central ideology of the human race, from the beginnings of the times is this: respect your neighbor, please. Is it a condition, in a novel, that the war of the good should always win over the bad, even that in reality we face other experiences? I may sound romantic, but when you use violence to fight violence, you generate more violence. We are free because we are committed without being forced to do so. Evil is more related to our attitudes to other people, and from other people towards us. Evil lives into the details. Everything is a matter of attitude. I do believe that a person has a personal legend to fulfill, and his/her attitude will either help or destroy his/her neighborhood. Your biography, written by Fernando Morais and recently published in Brasil, makes scandal because it pointed out that you had had three homosexual relations being younger.

So what you think about homosexuality; about the vision of the Catholic church and others religions as well as of the political suppression concerning it in many countries? It is not for me to judge the sexual choices of people(I wrote a book on that, Eleven Minutes). I had three homosexual relationships when I was 19, because my parents used to say if you want to be an artist, this also means that you are homosexual. They planted this doubt in my mind, and I decided to check by myself I could never live with this interrogation mark for the rest of my life. I tried, I did not like, and I realized by then that I am not a homosexual. That said, I am convinced that people are free to choose, and sexuality, with few exceptions that involve forcing others to do something that they dont like ( like rape and pedophily ) , is a personal choice.

How much will the value the manuscript change for you after it becomes a book. Im not meaning money but meaning the value for you.Is the word more powerful when its printed in thousands of copies than when it is present only in you mind? Alchemy is the art of projecting in this world what you have in the non-material world. Therefore, when you are able to manifest physically something, you get a better picture of your feelings. In the case of a book, most of the time I have a subconscious understanding, but I need to write and concentrate it. I would suggest everybody to write diaries, it helps a lot to solve our own conflicts. They all say we are chasing a train. We are all the time in this massive hurry in life something that you are not a big advocator of...? You have to define your purpose in life and I have strong objections when these young MBAs come out and they are defining their life as to how they are going to do this, which venture capital they are going to invest in, who they are going to pull down...that is not all about life. You have got to be happy. So I never leave work till I finish...The fact that I finish earlier than others, the guys working for will tell me, but I do believe you have to have a balance and life, when you define it please understand, cannot be only professional life. Life is a total package and so, one, you must enjoy what you are doing, two, you must do the things that you enjoy, you must find time for it and if what you are doing does not meet those...you leave it, irrespective of how good it is. So I guess she will have to enjoy 24x7 and thes day she doesnt...she should leave it.

What is the one lesson that you learnt growing up in career about life that you normally like to share with your children?

I would say three things. One, life is not all about success, life is not necessarily all about money, life is not what people say that contacts, hours. No, life is about hard work, being a good man. So that people respect for the individual you are. Having your self-esteem, work hard, do your job well, leave the rest to god and honestly, by god you will make it.

Which puzzle were you not able to solve while writing 11 minutes? Why for a prostitute a kiss is more intimate as sex and is more sacred than everything else. Just try kissing a prostitute. She will say to you: Stop! You can fuck me but do not try again to kiss me! In what direction is literature going in Latin America? Which of the new generation of writers do you have faith in? We cannot limit it to South America, but there is a whole generation of writers that are being influenced by the language in Internet, and by the use of word processors. This is a very good thing, because the more direct you are to yourself, the more you can reach your soul and the soul of your readers. According to your experiences, twenty per cent of customers go to a brothel to talk. Do you understand this? As a young man I often traveled forty-eight hours with the bus from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires to see my idol Jorge Luis Borges. The person sitting next to me laid down his complete life confession because he knew that we would never see each other again. Such a mechanism exists with priests, psychoanalysts and prostitutes.

In an Interview with Juan Arias of El Pas you confessed that, Happiness to me is very abstract, To tell you the truth, I am never happy. The fact that I dont search for happiness, does not mean that unhappiness is the choice. The right choice is joy. Challenges, defeats, victories, excitement, never being bored by this peaceful Sunday afternoon happiness. What inspires the characterization of the protagonist especially in case of female protagonists? How much of that inspiration comes from real life?

I only allow myself to write every two years because I feel that Ive gathered enough emotional energy to come up with a story. I never know, before sitting at my desk, if Im going to have a female or a male voice. All is very unpredictable. As in life, there is not always a rational explanation for certain choices. My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul. Like in archery, the paradox is the bow that can be both tense and relaxed. I know that its important to have values in life, but Ive always been more drawn to incoherence, because life is not static but rather like the tides, coming and going. Real events, memories, longings, other stories all fuse when I embark in a new story. Are you fond of traveling or are you happiest when in front of your typewriter in a quiet room? For me being alive meaning being able to meet people and travel is what brings me joy. Its only by living intensively that Im able to gather enough experiences, emotions, that later on guide me when I decide to write.

What did you learn during your research in the red light districts? The women differentiate between three types of customers. The Terminator wants to go directly to the room without drinks and conversation. The Pretty-Woman guy is at the start polite and elegant but during sex is significantly more demanding than the Terminator. The Godfather is immune to compliments which he has to pay for. He treats a womans body like piece of merchandise whose value he can estimate extremely accurately. As a best-selling author how far has consumerism affected you. You have to go through a corporate capitalist structure. As Buddha said, first you have to have, then you can renounce everything. It is easy to make a chastity vow if you are impotent. Easier to make a poverty vow if you are incapable of earning money with your choice, your dream. I could buy a castle, but I bought a watermill, not because I feel guilty I work hard but because a watermill is close to my way of seeing life, and easier to maintain. As for my work, no publisher dares to ask me anything I dont see the point of corporate capitalist structure. In The Alchemist you have said that you have to pay a price for the perusal of ones dream. Whats the price you paid in the journey with your dream?

A very high one. But I am glad that I paid this price for my dream, instead of paying the price of living someone elses dreams. If you meet a person who has a deep sense of worthlessness, who is broken, and has decided to end her life, what would you tell her? Dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other peoples destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you dont fear to share your heart, you are a free person. What does fate have to do with our Personal Legend? (by Mike) Theres an important difference between blind fate and the path of the personal legend. When we speak of fate, mans free will is absent: we are merely puppets in the hands of a cold and distant puppeteer. In the case of personal legend, theres the dimension of mission. This means that the person has to actively wish to thread down the path that will enable her to flourish. It is a difficult path, there are many obstacles, but its the persons choice. There is always the possibility for us to turn our backs to our personal legend. Can the heart be wrong? (by Antonya) How will you judge that? With your mind? If you do this, you will always find ways to discredit your heart. But these are illusions. Think of your heart as an instrument that goes beyond the typical right and wrong views. Your heart will always be your north star in life as long as you listen to it and give it a chance to talk to you. If the Universe says No, sometimes more than once, to something you really want, what do you do? (by Angie) If your wish is deep-rooted in your soul, persist. If not the Universe is simply echoing your inner turmoil. Always ask yourself how far are you able to go in the path of your dreams. Only when you are capable of answering that question will you be able to move forward. But dont forget: to enjoy the rainbow, you must also enjoy the rain Are coincidences in our life are a part of our destiny and if everything is written as we say maktub, then what is the point in following our dreams? (by Saakshi)

Theres a traditional story that in my view sums up quite well the answer to your question: There was an old man who had a dream one night that he would be protected from a ravaging storm that would engulf his whole village. The next day, as expected, a terrible storm came to his region. The first day a neighbor of his offered help for him to flee help that he denied since he was sure God was going to help him. The second day, when he had to take refuge in the second floor of his house given that the waters had taken over all of the first floor, a rescue team came to his house and offered him to get out of there help that he again refused given that God had promised him to get out of there. The third day came a helicopter to rescue him but he was adamant that God was going to save him. Not long after he drowned and died. Once in heaven he complained to God: why didnt you help me as you promised? To which God replied: I sent your neighbor, a rescue squad and even a helicopter to which you simply declined! You see Saakshi: things are written, but you need to be attentive to the signs that constantly try to remind you that life wishes you to be saved. And salvation is the path that leads you to your dream, your fulfillment in this life.

Many times we need to compare things, situations and people in order to decide what is best for us. Do you consider that in most cases this is a positive attitude? (Mara Adriana) It all depends on the context: if we make a decision that is based solely on what other people tell us, we may be straying from what we truly desire and want. But if we are able to listen to our souls keeping of course a channel open to others then we are able to grow and walk in the direction of our dreams. I have just finished reading the Witch of Portobello. What is the one thing that I must remember during this time which is full of doubts and fears but at the same time curiosity and excitement? (by Sarah) You should always bear in mind the goal of this transformation, without shutting away the process. Its actually in this very moment that you can grasp the wider meaning of your life. I had this realization while doing the pilgrimage to Saint James. I was, in the beginning obsessed with my sword and so wanted to get straight to the end of the journey. It was actually by living

the journey in all its aspects that I was finally able to find my sword. Both elements then must be present in your spirit in this time of change. The modern Japan is long been called as Self-searching Era. On the other hand, there are tendency that it is the reason for Adults Regression Phenomena such as adults growing tendency to put off marriage and declining birthrate. Mr. Coelho, what do you think of the influence toward society of the peoples search for ones raison detre and purpose of life? I think, that despite all the fanaticisms, we are seeing the beginning of an era where feminine values, such as generosity and tolerance, are surfacing again. This so called regression is actually a more honest attitude towards ourselves and what truly motivates us not what society expects of us. You are now known as "the magician of words". Why your debut was at the age of forty? What was the incident that motivated you? Its true, it took me almost 40 years for me to become a writer. Before that I always dreamt of becoming a writer, but I never dared to take the necessary steps. I did the pilgrimage to Santiago in 1986 but met my master in Amsterdam in 1982. He told me things back then that enabled my soul to slowly awaken and it was through a series of rituals that I was able, four years later, to embark on my pilgrimage. Yet, it was only during my pilgrimage that it became increasingly apparent that I wasnt happy and I had to do something about it stop making excuses. I realized that you dont have jump through a series of complicated hoops to achieve a goal. You can just look at a mountain and get a connection with God, you dont have to understand the mountain to feel that. When I first got back from the trip it was an anti-climax. I found it hard to acclimatize to my normal life and I was impatient to change my life immediately. But changes happen when youre ready. It took a few months to realize that I must solely concentrate on writing a book, rather than trying to fill various roles as I had before. The pilgrimage was to be my subject and as I started I took my first step towards my dream. Before and after you became an author, you continue to travel around the world. Which travel was most influential to you? Would you please describe when, where, and what was most shocking and devastating to you? Today. All wanderings are important since you can extract from anything in life a teaching, something that will make sense to you.

You have to look at life itself is a pilgrimage. Every day is different, every day can have a magic moment, but we dont see the opportunity, because we think: Oh this is boring Im just commuting to work. But we are all on a pilgrimage whether we like it or not and the target, or goal, the real Santiago, if you like, is death. You must get as much as you can from the journey, because in the end the journey is all you have. It doesnt matter what you accumulate in terms of material wealth, because you are going to die anyway, so why not live? When you realize that you can be brave and that is the first tenant of any spiritual quest to take risks.

How much will the value the manuscript change for you after it becomes a book. Im not meaning money but meaning the value for you.Is the word more powerful when its printed in thousands of copies than when it is present only in you mind? Alchemy is the art of projecting in this world what you have in the non-material world. Therefore, when you are able to manifest physically something, you get a better picture of your feelings. In the case of a book, most of the time I have a subconscious understanding, but I need to write and concentrate it. I would suggest everybody to write diaries, it helps a lot to solve our own conflicts. What is your message to your readers especially Indian readers? Any mantras for making their lives doubly meaningful and satisfying? Ive never seen myself as someone giving away mantras for making other people lives more satisfying. Im not responsible for others. Freedom is exactly that: people making their decisions by themselves, not giving it away for a guru to answer and decide for them. I think the best advice is always to not follow advices. Try life by yourself. Im just a man that has gone in the direction of his personal legend, taking risks and learning daily from all around me. Your definition of the modern witches is To me, a witch is a woman who is capable of letting her intuition guide her actions, one who communes with her environment, who isnt afraid of facing challenges. Please explain us about the prejudice that modern witches face in modern society and your opinion toward them. In todays society (as was the case in the past) there is a tremendous amount of energy spent on trying to make people conform: to established behavior, to established religions, namely, to a

certain type of thought. This uniformity is very tricky because it comes through a certain political correctness that stifles peoples spontaneity. Women who rebels against this sort of general inertia were called in the past witches and the stigma still strive nowadays. Actually these rebellious women pay a price, doing things in a way that probably will not make a lot of sense to others but that are vital to them. Athena is very bold and she takes a risk as anyone who stays true to oneself does. With reference to Brida, would you elaborate on the quest for the other, the soulmate, who completes a soul? Theres a motto in Alchemy: Concentrate and dissolve. As you may know alchemists would, through laboratory studies, try to distill the mercury from the sulfur and then refine the mercury until it converted into gold. This quest would lead them to the Philosopher Stone (which was the solid component) and the Long Life Elixir. All the process of distilling is based on this very simple motto: concentrate meaning extracting the essence and dissolve meaning mixing the essence with something else. Many disregard that through this routine, alchemists were also training their patience and thus transforming their perception of the world. I think you can apply this same motto to love: in order to preserve loves freedom, one has to be able at the same time to dive into its essence and to share it others. When did you discover literature, the pleasure of reading and writing? With the Brazilian authors for children, when I was very young. And from that moment on, I also discover that literature made me exercise my imagination, it was much more interesting than any other media, because there were a lot of space left to the reader, to create landscapes, faces, dresses. Any unusual hobbies we should know about? I travel constantly so days are never the same. I cant pinpoint unusual hobbies but nevertheless I do have some rituals: when I wake up I like having my breakfast and then going out for a walk. Walking for me is vital and the one things that I cant live without. I agree with the teachings of the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who said that: when you walk, you are massaging and honouring the earth. In the same way, the earth is trying to help you to balance your organism and mind. Understand this relationship and try to respect it may your steps have the firmness of a lion, the elegance of a tiger and the dignity of an emperor.

Normally in the afternoons I spend hours navigating the web: I consult my blog (www.paulocoelhoblog.com), my myspace (www.myspace.com/paulocoelho) I read newspapers from the world, I write my stories. I also quite often give interviews. At 6 pm on the dot, I pray since for me this is the magical hour of the day. After that, I like having diner with my wife & friends. Before going to bed, I read.

If not a writer what would you be? Its interesting that you ask this question because I wrote a column about the way I felt about the release of The Witch of Portobello. I was in Lisbon, just hours before the book was released in Portugal and in Latin America. I was walking along the streets of this marvelous city thinking about the moment when the first reader would touch the book in the shelves of the bookstore. I was excited and realized that I was still able, after publishing many books, to feel exactly the same way as in the release of my first book, The Pilgrimage. Of course, with success, the dimensions change but the inner feeling of sharing my soul with others remains intact. Im living the dream I had in my youth but I never look upon this dream as something that has an end. As long as Im able to live, think and love the spark will continue. How do you perceive the multiple identities in this increasingly shrinking world? When you talk of a shrinking world you are highlighting the fact that communication is omnipresent, that people can interact virtually anywhere in the world and this gives us the feeling that borders are being erased, differences blurred. Its true that these ever increasing flows of communication have an impact in different cultures but one cannot forget that this also fosters new type of culture. I believe that this new culture based in communication tools actually enables people to assume a wider variety of identities. Take a typical internet user: one has the freedom to create an avatar, build up a character, or reveal a hidden side Internet enables people to play a part, extract and exhibit their desires, their demons, their hopes. I have the feeling that in todays world, multiple identities are encouraged by this new culture of hyper-communication. In your books you are proving, that you have great feeling for contemporary human and his distresses. What do you think in what direction is going the future man? Will he be capable to survive and save his integrity, creativeness and intellect, and above all mental health?

Its always very tricky to talk about mental health: Ive been committed as a teenager to a clinic institution. I felt in my own skin the burden of being cataloged as mentally disturbed just because i didnt fit into the social norms. In my wanderings I came to believe that a person has a personal legend to fulfill. What is a personal legend? It is the reason why we are alive. In my case this legend was to share my ideas with others through writing. We have dreams, that are not necessarily the dreams that our parents or society had for us. So, we must get rid of the idea of fulfilling what people expect us to do, and start to do what we expect from our lives. The message in Veronika decides to die is that: dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other peoples destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you dont fear to share your heart, you are a free person. If there was a heaven and hell as a writer what would you imagine each to be like? I dont think I have to imagine Heaven and Hell, there are many examples in our world that represent both. Recently I read a very interesting book called The Lucifer Effectby Philip Zimbardo. This book tells of an experiment conducted in the sixties in Standford University where students were chosen to carry out an experiment in the basement of the university. A prison was recreated and by the flip of a coin 7 students were held hostage while the other 7 students were the prison guards. The guards had absolute power over the victims (except for physical violence) and the experiment was meant to last 2 weeks. Yet, at the end of the 6th day the experiment had to be ceased victims having nervous breakdowns. The guards, that unleashed their evil, had to go under therapy for years to come. These normal individuals, given absolute power, started doing evil deeds, simply because they could or didnt do anything to avoid hell of breaking loose. I was very impressed by this and I think that this experiment illustrates the fact that heaven and hell both dwell in our souls, just as light and darkness compose a day. You have tried many ways of expressing yourself through art. Why have you finally chosen writing?

It was in fact my first choice, but I postponed it for several decades, thinking that it was impossible to be a writer. Finally, after the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I decided to quit everything else and pay the price of the only dream that I truly had. In The Alchemist there are words such as Philosophers stone, Soul of the world, Elixir of life, Emerald Tablet, Language of the world. Do you think these words will be able to communicate with the new generations who have mobile phones stuck in their ears all the time? There is nothing wrong with mobile phones or Internet they make people get in touch, and this is wonderful. Having said that, the symbolic language is the only one capable of crossing the barriers of cultures and prejudices. Dance or music, for example, is purely symbolic, and thats why, when you go to a foreing country, the first thing that someone gives to you is a CD with local songs. Maturity, for me, it is the moment before decadence begins. We should not try to be mature, but to keep the sacred flame of youthful folly into our hearts. Your books usually are on similar subjects of alchemy, spirituality, witchcraft, magic, sexuality, still what is it that differentiates them? When I start a new book, I try to approach myself from a different angle. In The Alchemist, for example, I was trying to explain to myself what writing meant to me. The way I found to do this was through a metaphor. In Eleven Minutes, I started with the question of why sexuality is considered one of the major issues in life. But I had my doubts. And thats why the hero asks if its true that the world could revolve around 11 minutes. I talked a lot about sexual relations in the novel, but in the end I doubt if the world really revolves around sex. In The Zahir, on the other hand, there is a kind of a snapshot of my present moment as a famous writer. The novel is full of comments on what it means to be rich and famous, on the nature of marriage and the responsibilities of the writer. In The Witch of Portobello I wanted to explore the feminine side of divinity, I wanted to plunge into the heart of the Great Mother. In Brida, a book that I wrote in 1990, I plunge into the life of a woman that is trying to understand love and that has to go through many traditions, many paths of knowledge before finding her own. All these stories, characters bare the seal of my personality, but each has its own path, its own identity.

Do you feel the connection with others Latin-American writers? Had the writers, such as Borges, Mrquez and others have any influence on you or your work? Of course Im bound to other writers. Borges has been a constant source of inspiration. Its through his novels and short stories that I found ideas that subsequently became books. The Zahir for instance was a term that I found in one of his stories and his definition is what propelled me towards the realms of obsession. He also guided me throughout my youth. I remember, when I only caressed the dream of becoming a writer, that I took a two day bus trip to Buenos Aires to meet him. I saw him in a caf but didnt have the courage to talk to him. I regret this. Specially from a man that said something that I regard as being one of the fundamental truths in life: there no other virtue than being brave. With time I came to realize this: that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear. In your novels The Fifth Mountain or The Alchemist there is a wide deep understanding of the countries where events took place, how did you reach such relation with what you are not related to. Are books and movies enough? You tell the story of a Brazilian woman called Maria who works in a luxury brothel in Geneva. One night she falls in love with a much admired artist, who has fame, money and women in abundance. His problem: he is not interested any more in sex. This person Ralf is my alter ego. I also know of times when my libido is zero. Because sex is in itself a value, for a long time I had a bad conscience about not being interested in sex. I believe that people have never before had so little sex as today. In the Internet, no search expression is entered as frequently as sex, and we see pictures everywhere which should make us horny, but the horniness which it produces goes into emptiness. Marias problem is that she is a victim of the most dangerous myth of sexuality: she believes that a woman has to have an orgasm through penetration and this is something she cannot achieve. Maria and Ralf learn that sex is like a foreign language: if you dont try it you also dont learn anything. At the end they understand to perceive ones own desire as true sexual lust.

You relate to cultures through art this is the most important bridge among different civilizations. The Arabian Nights, and most of the classical Arabic texts helped me to understand and admire the soul of the Arabian people.

Are you alchemist, shepherd boy or crystal businessman? The shepherd boy.

Twenty years on from that famous line, do you still believe that when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. yes I still believe in this sentence. What people dont realize though is that the universes conspires, hears, all wishes may they be positive or negative ones. This doesnt mean though that a conscious wish will be heard there are undercurrents in our souls that are stronger that despite ourselves communicate with the Anima Mundi. what do you understand by world-soul (anima mundi)? Anima Mundi is an expression taken from old alchemists texts. Its the soul of the world, the beating heart of our emotions, dreams, desires. It is very similar to what Carl Young refers to as the collective unconscious. It is meaningful even if sometimes forgotten and it surrounds us. Do you consider it alive, as another unseen world? The worlds soul is alive since its composed of ourselves and our beliefs. If you would like to turn the clock back to a certain moment in your life, to live it through again, which moment would that be? from your childhood maybe? my clock moves forward and the only moments when I think about the past with regret is when I have hurt a friend. But to be able to apologize is something that i can only do in the present, not in the past. Is it possible to have more than one personal legend ? I believe its possible, but to be honest I think people may disperse themselves if they dont focus in one particular goal. I want to ask you if you think that Love is the most important thing in life. to quote the Beatles : all you need is love. In your book Pilgrimage you described 3 possible different meaning for love: Eros, Philos and agape. Does eternal love exist according to you? Love itself is eternal we are made of Love. However, the manifestations may be ephemerous

it is like a tree, that may have some different leaves in this summer, and totally different leaves in the next summer. Love is the tree, the manifestation of love are the leaves. You have also spoken about empty spaces. But arent some inner spaces better left empty? Do you agree? How important is an understanding of the inner organisation for you as a writer and also as a human being? Of course I do. Who doesnt? The whole problem is not about having empty spaces, but about admitting that they exist. Todays society is so preoccupied about coherence that many get trapped in the misconception that all is explainable. Society tries to convince us that we have to be completely transparent, not only to the world but to ourselves. There is where the danger lies. Its necessary to admit that some things cant be grasped, that our empty spaces exist and that we have to respect and honor the mystery. Its not easy being a human being, and were not capable to rule everything in life. A fatalistic belief can be helpful. But you say everybody can influence their own destiny. What was it in your own life that convinced you? The absolute conviction that my life would be meaningless if I didnt go after my dream: being a writer. This happened to me when I was locked away in an asylum when I was a teenager. I had two choices back then: to convince myself that I was crazy and therefore step out of the world, or to fight for my place in the world. I choose the toughest : life. With the exception of a few last sentences in the epilogue your novel 11 minutes is a record of disappointment and despair that no human being escapes. Yet it seems that you only dwell on them in order to show in passing and almost inadvertently that disappointment is but a stage of personal development, at the end of which comes a new passion for life. Is this what you are trying to say? The Greek poet Kavafis, referring to Ulysses, says: keep Ithaca in mind, but I hope that your journey will last many years, and you will learn everything you need to learn. Although he was forced to face difficult circumstances, he knew that Penelope was waiting for him at the end of his ordeals. This happens to all of us we must have confidence that, in the end, we will find what we have been struggling for.

One of your female characters in the novel The devil and Miss Prym says that hell for God is his love towards people. Can you explain this?

The character is quoting Nietzsche. In fact, I would not put the central question of this book into this optimistic/pessimistic views. A person must face reality as it is, and then try to work on this reality, creating a better opportunity for his life to develop. There is only one rule: dare. Dare to pay the price. Dare to be different. Dare to face the prejudices. Dare to go where your dreams lead you, and you will find the forces and the guidance throughout the journey. Does the power of prayer still represents something essential in a world filled with injustice and cruelty? My favorite prayer is Immaculate Conception give me strength to fight injustice and cruelty. Remember that the first direct route to God is prayer. The second direct route is joy.

What followed this decision has confirmed that you have gone the right way. You have won international recognition, most important prizes, honorary titles; you have become a member of some of the most prestigious institutions in the world. Is anything missing from this almost perfect portfolio? If so, what? Every day is a miracle and a challenge. I should be concentrated in the daily experience, without thinking about the past. You have been a non-conformist throughout your life. What do you think of the man-made organisations? Do they, in any way, obstruct the path of progressives like you? In todays society (as was the case in the past) there is a tremendous amount of energy spent on trying to make people conform: to established behavior, to established religions, namely, to a certain type of thought. This uniformity is very tricky because it comes through a certain political correctness that stifles peoples spontaneity. This should not though make us despair, all of these man-made organizations are made by individuals and I believe that change is possible in this scale, as long as people dare to take risks and pay the price for their freedom.

Is there any place in the world that might be more important or more meaningful then other places? Place that one should definitely visit? A place is a symbol. You misunderstand a symbol when you try to follow the interpretation that

another person gave to it. A symbol is there to talk to your heart, not to your brains. Therefore, wherever you feel that you are receiving good energy, this is a place that you should return. Your new book is critical to religion, where dictates and doctrine are stronger than compassion and effort to serve. Did someone warn you against the eventual controversy caused by celebrating the Great Mother or did you even warn yourself sometimes? I always knew the potential for controversy in this book but I also thought that the feminine side of God is increasingly being recognized. People are no longer interested purely in religion, what matters now is personal faith. And you can see that this preoccupation is taking the lead in all nations despite the extremisms that, unfortunately, are more visible. The Witch of Portobello is also about a faith, religion and doubts. What is your relation to the religion and church? In spite of your Jesuit education you tend to kind of personal faith based on love I grew up, like almost all Brazilians, in a strictly Catholic family. Later, at the age of rebellion, I doubted about Catholicism, and felt that I must try something new. Then I became a hippie. During this time, I travelled a lot, met people of different backgrounds, and had learnt different paths to come closer to spirituality. After I did a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I returned to the Catholic faith just because it is in my blood, not because it is the best religion. I am a catholic, but I dont think you can put God in a church. God is everywhere. All religions have advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore I dont think love is at odds with Christianity. Jesus message was above all a message of love to humanity.

In your book Pilgrimage you described 3 possible different meaning for love: Eros, Philos and agape. Does eternal love exist according to you? Love itself is eternal we are made of Love. However, the manifestations may be ephemerous it is like a tree, that may have some different leaves in this summer, and totally different leaves in the next summer. Love is the tree, the manifestation of love are the leaves.

What is your greatest sin? If this can be a sin, I am like a volcano; sometimes very calm, sometimes with an explosion that can be heard very far away. What memories do you keep from the days when you were a lyricist?

Excess. But as William Blake once said The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. You say in your book 11 Minutes that abandoning oneself to passion can be as damaging as withdrawing from it. Whats your choice then? Do you choose to remain an observer? Love may lead us to heaven or hell, we all know. But I choose to take the risks, and fall in love. To remain an observer of life is not to live at all.

You must have heard that there are numerous people who committed suicide from a sense failure. How do you view these incidents since you once said When you want something, you have to fight for it, then the whole universe will help you. But not the way that you expect it. In reality, is it a fact that not everyone will achieve what they want? The concept of Personal Legend is beyond our daily lives. Joseph Campbell used a different expression, Personal Bliss, and we all know, when we are young, that there is something in life that makes us full of joy, while other things bother us. This is what Personal Legend is all about: following the path of enthusiasm. People who committed suicide from a sense of failure normally do that because they are following their parents path, not their own.

What type of music do you listen to classical, jazz, rock Does your mood or feelings influence on what you want to listen to at any given moment? Any music at any time. I am a music freak. Top of Form

How much is the theme of your novel Devil and Miss Prym inspired by the modern problem of terrorism in the world? The novel was written before 9-11 attacks. I was in Munich, in a signing session, when these events happened. For my surprise, not only the theme was in the book, under a metaphoric guideline, but also the answer to the attack was the same as in the book: instead of seeking for justice, it seems that the Western world decided for revenge that, as we all know, leads to nowhere. The Devil and Miss Prym concludes the trilogy And on the Seventh Day. The first two books were: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994) and Veronika Decides to Die (1998). Each of the three books is concerned with a week in the life of ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death and power. I have always believed

that in the lives of individuals, just as in society at large, the profoundest changes take place within a very reduced time frame. When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. What is your message to your readers especially Indian readers? Any mantras for making their lives doubly meaningful and satisfying? Ive never seen myself as someone giving away mantras for making other people lives more satisfying. Im not responsible for others. Freedom is exactly that: people making their decisions by themselves, not giving it away for a guru to answer and decide for them. I think the best advice is always to not follow advices. Try life by yourself. Im just a man that has gone in the direction of his personal legend, taking risks and learning daily from all around me.

Your theory about every person could reach everything in life is really optimistic. But if the person tried once and was despaired and disappointed what is he going to do? There is sometimes a bit of confusion in regards to a passage of my book The Alchemist When you really want something, the world conspires to make a dream come true. Mind you, some people dont truly want something or sometimes want things that in the end wont truly help them. The Universe is a merely and echo of our desires, may they be constructive or destructive ones. One has also to keep in mind the difference between dream and obsession. I mention personal legend in The Alchemist, and I wrote a book about obsession, The Zahir. When you follow your the personal legend, you walk your path and learn from it. The objective doesnt blind you to the road that takes you there. In the other hand obsession is what prevents you from admiring the teachings of life. Its like trying to get to your objective without passing through the challenges. I realized that despite the fear and the bruises of life, one has to keep on fighting for ones dream. As Borges said in his writings there no other virtue than being brave.

And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.

Your novels arent tragedies, they principle end somehow happily, with self-understanding, recognition of main characters. Do you want to deliver some kind of positive thoughts? I wouldnt say positive thoughts but rather hope: against all the sarcasm, all the detachment our current society dwells on. I read Zahir recently. I could not understand clearly though that what do u think should be done to avoid making this relationship so monotonous. What are your views on what is Marriage? (question by Shipra) How to keep our relations out of monotony is a very personal thing. In regards to the situation you mention in The Zahir, what enabled the main character to finally re-live his passion for his wife was her absence. I will quote here one of my favorite writers, Khalil Gibran, on the subject of marriage since I think he expressed really beautifully what marriage is: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. And stand together, yet not too near together. For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each others shadow. What kind of person Paulo Coelho is in everyday life? ( Richard, in Twitter)

Im first and foremost an Internet addict. I spend 3 hours every day talking to my readers through social communities: this blog, Facebook and Twitter. For the past two years, I decided to stop giving interviews I am tired to repeat the same questions over and over again. Of course this is not a final decision, and I can eventually accept an invitation but my mailbox is full of requests that my office answers with a single word: busy. I also have small rituals that I need to accomplish (at home or travelling): walking in the morning, reading the news in the internet, talking to my friends and my wife. Of course, I also live my life in a way that every day will present new challenges and unexpected things. I dont like to have everything planned beforehand. This is mainly because: a] Its pointless : life is impossible to predict b] Its the very salt of life I dont want to know whats going to happen. Could you recall from your life where you felt the feminine face of God? It was in 1992, when I was sitting inside of a grotto, in Lourdes. Since then, I try to accept my feminine side. When I write, I am a woman. I got pregnant from life, and I dont know how the baby looks like. My pregnancy cycle lasts for two years, and I dont take notes, I dont make plans. The only thing that I know is that life put inside me a seed that will grow when time comes. Then, when time comes, I sit and write. Every creative act demands a respect for mystery, and I respect the mystery, without trying to understand it. What do you feel when readers hug you and confess in public how the book had changed their lives? First and foremost, I am a writer and a writer is always facing the challenge of a new book. This is, for me, what makes life interesting: there is always a new book to be written, which involves pain, joy, suffering, relief, feelings of a person who is alive. I dont think why this or that happened, and I became a worldwide celebrity. I think: Am I honest in which I am doing? Can I still talk to my soul? The secret of the success of my books, if there is one; it is the absence of secrets. Did you expect this world wide success? When I wrote The Alchemist, I was trying to understand my own life, and the only way that I could do it was through a metaphor. Then, the book with no support of the press, because the

media normally refuses to publish anything about an unknown writer made its way to the readers, and the readers start to discover that we share the same questions. Little by little, the book started to travel abroad, and today is one of the best seller books of all times. But this success came slowly, based on a word-of-mouth promotion, and this gives me the sensation, the wonderful sensation that I am not alone. In an Interview with Juan Arias of El Pas you confessed that, Happiness to me is very abstract, To tell you the truth, I am never happy. The fact that I dont search for happiness, does not mean that unhappiness is the choice. The right choice is joy. Challenges, defeats, victories, excitement, never being bored by this peaceful Sunday afternoon happiness. As a best-selling author how far has consumerism affected you. You have to go through a corporate capitalist structure. As Buddha said, first you have to have, then you can renounce everything. It is easy to make a chastity vow if you are impotent. Easier to make a poverty vow if you are incapable of earning money with your choice, your dream. I could buy a castle, but I bought a watermill, not because I feel guilty I work hard but because a watermill is close to my way of seeing life, and easier to maintain. As for my work, no publisher dares to ask me anything I dont see the point of corporate capitalist structure. In The Alchemist you have said that you have to pay a price for the perusal of ones dream. Whats the price you paid in the journey with your dream? A very high one. But I am glad that I paid this price for my dream, instead of paying the price of living someone elses dreams. If you meet a person who has a deep sense of worthlessness, who is broken, and has decided to end her life, what would you tell her? Dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other peoples destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you dont fear to share your heart, you are a free person.