“Death had to take her little by little, bit by bit, dragging her along to the bitter end of the miserable existence she'd made for herself. They never even knew what she did die of. Some spoke of a chill. But the truth was that she died from poverty, from the filth and the weariness of her wretched life.”
Émile Zola“Boredom was at the root of Lazare's unhappiness, an oppressive, unremitting boredom, exuding from everything like the muddy water of a poisoned spring. He was bored with leisure, with work, with himself even more than with others. Meanwhile he blamed his own idleness for it, he ended by being ashamed of it.”
Émile Zola, The Joy of Life“Men were springing up, a black avenging host was slowly germinating in the furrows, thrusting upward for the harvests of future ages. And very soon their germination would crack the earth asunder.”
Émile Zola, Germinal“For Zola, as for Huysmans, nature itself is uncanny because it is the domain of the feminine, a domain that is constitutionally defective, lacking, even pathological.”
Charles Bernheimer“Did not one spend the first half of one's days in dreams of happiness and the second half in regrets and terrors?”
Émile Zola, The Joy of Life“She wanted to live, and live fully, and to give life, she who loved life! What was the good of existing, if you couldn't give yourself?”
Émile Zola, The Joy of Life“There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.”
Emile Zola“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”
Emile Zola“I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity.”
Emile Zola