Maigret had often tried to get other people, including men of experience, to admit that those who fall, especially those who have a morbid determination to descend ever lower, are almost always ideali...
Human tragedies are always simple when we reconsider them in retrospect.
He had read endless books, he had digested them, pondered over them. Day by day, year after year, he had turned over all the problems of human beings. Yet there were all sorts of simple things he didn...
C'era un'atmosfera da domenica sera, quando ci si sente fiacchi senza aver fatto nulla, invasi da un molle torpore, e i minuti scorrono più lenti che gli altri giorni.
She must have been pretty once. At least, like everyone, she had been young. Now her eyes, her mouth, her whole body exuded weakness. Could it be that she was ill and waiting for her next attack? Some...
The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.
He distrusted ideas, as they were always too rigid to reflect reality, which, as he knew from experience, was very fluid.
It was the serene cheerfulness of a man who has no nightmares, who feels at peace with himself and everyone else. They [Americans] were almost all of them like that. And it definitely got Maigret’s ba...
When he went out it was freezing, and a pale winter sun was rising over Paris.No thought of escape had as yet crossed Monsieur Monde's mind.'Morning, Joseph.''Morning, monsieur.'As a matter of fact, i...
I’m worried that the chicken may be overcooked …’ she said as she served Maigret. And her tone was the one in which she might have said, for example: ‘I’m afraid of everything! I don’t know what’s goi...
The inspector knew the mentality of malefactors, criminals and crooks. He knew that you always find some kind of passion at the root of it.
Maigret avait déjà tenté de faire admettre par d'autres, y compris par des hommes d'expérience, que ceux qui dégringolent, en particulier ceux qui mettent un acharnement morbide à descendre toujours p...
He was a big, bony man. Iron muscles shaped his jacket sleeves and quickly wore through new trousers. He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there.
The fact that we are I don't know how many millions of people, yet communication, complete communication, is completely impossible between two of those people, is to me one of the biggest tragic theme...
The street sprinkler went past and, as its rasping rotary broom spread water over the tarmac, half the pavement looked as if it had been painted with a dark stain. A big yellow dog had mounted a tiny...
Si parte da un dettaglio qualsiasi, talvolta di poco conto, e senza volerlo si giunge a scoprire grandi princìpi.
Era come se la mia vista fosse diventata troppo acuta, come se, per esempio, fosse improvvisamente diventata sensibile ai raggi ultravioletti. Ed ero l’unico che vedesse gli altri in quel modo, l’unic...
The place smelled of fairgrounds, of lazy crowds, of nights when you stayed out because you couldn't go to bed, and it smelled like New York, of its calm and brutal indifference.
Marmots, trinquer
We’re a bit like criminal lawyers. We’re the public face of things, but it’s the civil lawyers who do the serious work, in the shadows.