“What an odd creature you are, Bernard, with your constant fear of death! Do you never have a feeling, as I do, of utter futility? No? Doesn't it occur to you that the sort of life people like us lead is remarkably like death?”

“Human love is often but the encounter of two weaknesses.”

“No love no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.”

“To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.”

“Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.”

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.”

“I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day a novel should not be interrupted. ”

“The human creature, humiliated and offended in ways that are inconceivable to the mind and heart, defies the blind and deaf divinity.”

“The effort of explaining, even of expressing himself, had become, with the years, more and more terrifying to him. Whether from laziness or from inability to find the right words, he had developed almost a passion for silence.”

“To quote French author Francois Mauriac, 'Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who your are' is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.”

“What an odd creature you are, Bernard, with your constant fear of death! Do you never have a feeling, as I do, of utter futility? No? Doesn't it occur to you that the sort of life people like us lead is remarkably like death?”