But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.
Because wanton or venal lips had murmured the same words to him, he only half believed in the sincerity of those he was hearing now; to a large extent they should be disregarded, he believed, because...
At the bottom of her heart, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like shipwrecked sailors, she turned despairing eyes upon the solitude of her life, seeking afar off some white sail in th...
An infinity of passion can be contained in one minute, like a crowd in a small space.
Abstraction can provide stumbling blocks for people of strange intelligence.
A man, at least, is free; he can explore each passion and every kingdom, conquer obstacles, feast upon the most exotic pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Both inert and yielding, against...
La felicità) Un giorno o l’altro è possibile incontrarla [...] un giorno, all’improvviso, quando oramai non si sperava più. Allora si intravedono orizzonti, è come se una voce gridasse: ‘Eccola!’ E tu...
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletariat to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeoisie.
One day, I shall explode like an artillery shell and all my bits will be found on the writing table.
When you reduce a woman to writing, she makes you think of a thousand other women
I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.
One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.
The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful one must sense him everywhere but never see him.
The cult of art gives pride one never has too much of it.
There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing t...
You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.
Without moving, you walk through lands you imagine you can see, and your thoughts, weaving in and out of the story, delight in the details or follow the outlines of the adventures. You merge with the...
Porque labios libertinos o venales le habían murmurado frases semejantes, no creía sino débilmente en el candor de las mismas; había que rebajar, pensaba él, los discursos exagerados que ocultan afect...
N’importe ! elle n’était pas heureuse, ne l’avait jamais été. D’où venait donc cette insuffisance de la vie, cette pourriture instantanée des choses où elle s’appuyait ?… Mais, s’il y avait quelque pa...