Suddenly, stupidly, she started singing: "If Adelita went off with another man.

Así fue como aprendí -se dice ella ahora- que la verdad no existe, la verdad se fabrica. Y precisamente a eso me dedico desde aquel entonces, es tan divertido como útil.

When no one is left to tell what happened, family histories keep their secrets.

La manera más eficaz de “reescribir” una vida es mezclar con descaro verdades con grandes mentiras

Eight: the age of exploration, of ghosts and secret forays; the age at which a mystery lurks behind every curtain and every armoire opens into a magical world, which you may enter at any time, but who knows when you will return.

All that work: his generous patronage of the arts, the vast sums of money he had donated to worthy causes, setting up charitable organizations . . . for what? In the end, none of those good works had redeemed him in the eyes of others. People think that men like me give money away to buy forgiveness for a sin or out of vanity, when it's the winner's pathetic tribute to the loser. Look at me, we seem to be begging, I need you too. I need you to accept me, to admire me, to love me.