Paulo Coelho

Brazil's best-selling novelist Paulo Coelho put his substantial literary weight behind Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympic bid here Thursday. Coelho, speaking on the eve of the IOC vote, outlined what it would signify for Brazilians to stage the world's greatest sporting event. "The Olympics is not just about sports. The original idea of (modern Olympic founder) Pierre de Coubertin was also about transformation," the 62-year-old native of Rio told a press conference. "I had lunch today with wives of IOC members and made a promise that if I'm still alive in 2016 I will stand upside down on my head on Copacabana beach to ... Read Full Story

fashion alchemy chic, charitable and well-read—with so much going for you, why not show it off? high street retailers partnering with high fashion designers is nothing new—but when one teams up with a famous author, well, you just don’t see that every day. enter mango —the spanish shop where we love to score sweet deals—with a new t-shirt line emblazoned with quotes by paul coelho. he’s author of more than 20 books, including the alchemist , which harvey weinstein is soon turning into a movie. the tees, with graphics that resemble book spines, feature inspirational bon mots like “everyone has a treasure that is ... Read Full Story

I asked this week to friends to stare a blank wall – what do you see? In my case, I’m used to stare to a blank wall or a candle – but I don’t try to empty my mind because this is impossible. I rather try to follow my train of thought on what happens inside of me and I’m not entirely conscious. When I wrote the post on staring at the blank wall, I remember I was trying to think about songs, then about the name of the artist, at the same time I was thinking about of the plumber that had to ... Read Full Story

I have just had dinner, now I am having some coffee and contemplating the painting in front of me: it was put in a river and left there for a year, waiting for nature to give the final touch to the painter's work. Half of the painting was carried off by the waters and bad weather, so the edges are all uneven, but even so I can still see part of the beautiful red rose painted on a golden background. I know the artist. I remember 2003, when together we went to a forest in the Pyrenees, discovered the creek – which at that ... Read Full Story

We have to take risks. We can only truly understand the miracle of life when we let the unexpected manifest itself. Every day – together with the sun – God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to pretend that we don’t realize that moment, that it doesn’t exist, that today is just the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if you pay attention, you can discover the magic instant. It may be hiding at the moment when we put the key in the door in ... Read Full Story