A misquote on our Facebook Page by Meryl Streep helped us discover Author, José Micard Teixeira, which proves something good can come from something bad.

Where are you from?

I’m from Portugal. I was born in Aveiro and today I split my time between Lisbon and Ovar.

How many books have you written? What inspires you to write?

Until this day, I wrote four self-help books: Learn to Live without Fear, Learn to Live without Stress, Know How to Change Your Life and Give a New Meaning to Your Life.

What inspires me is the knowledge of my truth. I love to know more and more who I am because I believe that which we take with us from this life is the knowledge we acquire in it. Knowing my truth, I inspire myself each time to talk more about it and share it with the will and desire of being able to help those who find in it an extra motivation to know their own truth and change their attitude towards life. It gives me great pleasure being able to put into words all kinds of emotions, feelings, and experiences with others, in a way that people can relate to. And realize that nothing is lost and everything can be gained, as long as you understand that changing your attitude only depends on you and no one else.

The affirmation we posted on our Facebook page that Meryl Streep admired was powerful. What was the inspiration for that piece?

That piece was written on a train ride from Lisbon to Oporto, One day when I was feeling a little disappointed with how certain things were happening in my life. It was sort of something that I needed to get off my chest written in twenty minutes that represented the accumulation of several situations over months and also a liberation through words that, deep down, represent what a lot of people feel nowadays. I’m passionate about writing about emotions and feelings. The true inspiration of everything I write comes from the realization and experience of that passion.

When you got wind of us misquoting your affirmation with Actress Meryl Streep, how did that make you feel? How did you feel we handled the situation to correct the error via our Facebook page?

Honestly, it didn’t bother me any more than all of the others who had already done the same thing with my text. I simply asked you to correct the authorship, like I did with the others, but I was very surprised with the promptitude and attentiveness with which you corrected the mistake. There were cases of publishers who didn’t bother to correct it or make any notes about the real author. If they all had the same attitude as you, the truth would’ve already spread a lot more by now. I thank you, Obvious Magazine, for your attitude.

You are very inspiring person. Why do you choose to be optimistic and uplifting?

I believe that everyone who writes about their own truth can become an inspiration to a lot of other people. The truth sets you free and we all love the feeling of being free. The choice to be optimistic comes from believing that everything that happens to us in life is the best for us, even if we might not understand why a certain thing is happening. I always try to see the positive side of everything in everything. Because I know that the perspective with which I look at everything generates my reality. Sometimes, there are situations that are really tough and hard to explain and accept. The question, a lot of times, is not in understanding why, but in realizing what is it for. A positive attitude leads me to easily understand the second choice.

Are any of your books in English via print and/or Kindle?

Not yet. What I’ve been doing for months is publishing my texts on my Facebook page simultaneously in Portuguese and in English. The truth is there already was a José Micard Teixeira before this whole thing involving Mrs. Meryl Streep’s name started. What that made happen was the knowledge on a different scale of the work of a man who has been dedicating himself for years to write about what his heart and soul are telling him.

If you could make one of your books into a movie, what book would it be and why?

It would definitely be my third book “Know How to Change Your Life,” because it is an inspiring story with a rich content that could help a lot of people make the decision to improve and change their lives.

If you weren’t an author, what else would you be doing?

That’s a good question. Because I love what I do so much, it would have to be something where I would feel at least an identical love. I believe that passion is the real elixir of life. Without passion, you give up. Without passion, you leave. Without passion, you live in effort. For that reason, I believe that if one day I make a different choice, it will definitely be because that new path will provoke in me a much bigger passion than the current one.

What author(s), living or dead, do you admire? Why?

I have a great admiration for the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), for the audacity, beauty and intelligence of his texts. I believe that until today in Portugal no one was able to be as brilliant as he was.

Name 5 things you live by?

A lot of people want to be happy. Others want to be able to live in peace. Others even want to fulfill their dreams. I usually say that I live only for one thing. I want to die some day with a smile on my lips remembering the life I lived.

Facebook page – José Micard Teixeira
Photo Credit: Daniel Mendonça

 QUOTE THAT CONNECTED US TO AUTHOR

“I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me.