Fernando Pessoa, the book of quotations

Fascinated by Fernando Pessoa since he was 16, when he first encountered the poem "Tobacco Shop," Pernambuco lawyer José Paulo Cavalcanti Filho, now 65, has dedicated the last decade to researching the life and work of the Portuguese poet, resulting in the most comprehensive reference work on Pessoa: "Fernando Pessoa, a quasi-autobiography," published in 2012 by Editora Record and winner of the Jabuti Prize, the Book Biennial (Brasília), the José Ermírio de Moraes Prize (from the Brazilian Academy of Letters), the Dario Castro Alves Prize (Portugal), and the Algomais Magazine Prize (Pernambuco). The book is in its sixth edition, with over 11,000 copies sold. For nearly 10 years, José Paulo followed every possible trace of the writer, who died at 47 in Lisbon, where he spent most of his life—his home, his work, the cafés he frequented. He traveled an average of five times a year to Portugal, where he hired the services of researchers, historians, consultants, and journalists, amassing an impressive collection of Pessoa's documents and pieces, acquired from relatives and friends. During the entire time he worked on his biography—at least four hours a day—José Paulo grew increasingly close to his subject and, at first somewhat by chance, every time he saw a quote of his (or one of his heteronyms) that he considered special, he would jot it down and save it. In the end, there were well over a thousand, on a wide range of subjects. "I felt, as it were, his small joys, his doubts, his discouragements, the awareness of genius, the liturgy of failure. And I wanted to share the astonishment I so often felt when reading his texts with more people. I imagine they will be in for some very pleasant surprises," José Paulo reveals. And thus was born The Book of Quotations. Certain that many will want to know what Pessoa thinks about life, death, dreams, and humankind, José Paulo divided the quotes—some never before published in a book—into over 300 themes, based on choices made according to strictly personal preferences—a play on the author's name—at the suggestion of his friend Millôr Fernandes: "The idea is to allow all the quotes on a single theme to be shared. What are his best quotes on love, passion, religion, madness—which, for him, is a "journey, between souls and stars, through the forest of terrors?" Myth, "which is the nothingness that is everything." Boats, whose "purpose is not to sail, but to reach a port." This last quote, incidentally, is from Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's 127 heteronyms listed by José Paulo in the biography, and with whom the author most identifies.