Leger, huwelijk, kerk en bankwezen: de vier ruiters van de apocalyps.
We think we understand a song’s lyrics but what makes us believe in them, or not, is the music.
One mustn’t dream of one’s future; one must earn it.
Nobody knows much about women, not even Freud, not even women themselves. But it’s like electricity: you don’t need to know how it works to get a shock on the fingers.
Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.
Books hold no passports. There’s only one true literary tradition: the human.
Waiting is the rust of the soul.
Remember me, even if it’s only in a corner and secretly. Don’t let me go.
Time has taught me not to lose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either.
She was seventeen, her entire life shining on her lips.
If only everything hurt as little as a blow to the face.
For some reason, I never felt the need to have kids. My wife feels the same. We don’t feel a void. I don’t think they would give my life meaning. I do think of the books as my children, though. Whatever is inside of me, I put into my books.
It’s only worth staying in bed if you’re young and in good company.
One loves truly only once in a lifetime, Julian, even if one isn’t aware of it.
Nothing is fair. The most one can hope is for things to be logical. Justice is a rare illness in a world that is otherwise a picture of health.
If you think you’re the only person for whom life is painful, you’re wrong. And if you don’t mind letting yourself die like a dog, at least have the decency to remember that there are those of us who do care – although, to tell the truth, I don’t see why?
I quarreled with every word, every phrase and expression, every image and letter as if they were the last I was ever going to write. I wrote and rewrote every line as if my life depended on it, and then rewrote it again.
I’m not talking to anyone, I’m delivering a monologue. It’s the inebriated man’s prerogative.
One is never wholly conscious of the greed hidden in one’s heart until one hears the sweet sound of silver.
We had yet to learn that the Devil created youth so that we could make our mistakes, and that God established maturity and old age so that we could pay for them...