Eleven minutes. The world revolved around something that only took eleven minutes.

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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Desire is not what you see, but what you imagine.

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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The art of sex is the art of controlled abandon.

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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For a night? Now come on, Maria, you’re exaggerating. It’s really only forty-five minutes, and if you allow time for taking off clothes, making some phoney gesture of affection, having a bit of banal conversation and getting dressed again, the amount of time spent actually having sex is about eleven minutes.

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria. Wait a minute. "Once upon a time" is how all the best children's stories begin, and "prostitute" is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction?

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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She would never see him again, but, for a few hours, in the autumn of her despair, she had ceased to be a faithful wife, housewife, loving mother, exemplary public servant and constant friend, and reverted to being simply a woman.

Paulo Coelho in Eleven Minutes (2003), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Added by Dan Costinaş
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