Jean-Philippe Toussaint

“Il me semblait en effet qu'une idée, aussi brillante fût-elle, n'était pas vraiment digne d'être retenue si, pour simplement s'en souvenir, il fallait la noter.”

“Les meilleurs livres sont ceux dont on se souvient du fauteuil dans lequel on les a lus.”

“In the fight between you and reality, be discouraging.”

“She misunderstood my method, in my opinion, not realizing that my approach, rather obscure to those unfamiliar, was based on the idea that in my struggle with reality, I could exhaust any opponent with whom I was grappling, like one can wear out an olive, for example, before successfully stabbing it with a fork, and that my propensity not to hasten matters, far from having a negative effect, in fact prepared for me a fertile ground where, when things seemed ripe, I could make my move with ease.”

“The chances of seeing an idea through to completion are inversely proportional to the time you’ve spent talking about it beforehand. ”