How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He had worked for an entire year to make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute, was becoming less important. Maybe because that wasn't really his dream. (2.80)
Santiago gets a little mixed up along the way, but as long as he's open to the omens, it's cool. He spends a year thinking he's saving up to buy sheep, but at the last minute realizes that he's actually been saving for a caravan ride to the pyramids. Eh, sheep, camel, it's all barnyard stuff to us.
Quote #8
"And I am part of your dream, a part of your Personal Legend, as you call it." (2.289)
You say tomato, I say طماطم. Fatima is saying that she's part of Santiago's dream, or, in Melchizedek's words, a Personal Legend. It's all the same in the end: it's Santiago's destiny that he can fulfill by following his dreams.
Quote #9
"Why don't people's hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?" the boy asked the alchemist.
"Because that's what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don't like to suffer." (2.515-16)
The alchemist knows what the crystal merchant does: following your dream is hard work. You might get robbed, separated from loved ones, caught up in a tribal war, robbed again, robbed a third time… you get the picture. The point is that no one said that following a dream would be easy—but they did say it'd be worth the pain.