“I think you are talented and passionate Isabella. More than you think and less than you expect.

But there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere.

This is only the first step for achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength.

You can be born with more or less ability but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast.

What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation and the technique.

The intelligence you were born with is just ammunition.

To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon.

Every work of art is aggressive Isabella.

And every artist’s life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one’s limitations.

To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge and finally the opportunity.”

The Angel’s Game

Carlos Ruiz Zafón