“Sometimes, from beyond the skycrapers, the cry of a tugboat finds you in your insomnia, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island.”

“There are no more deserts. There are no more islands. Yet thereis a need for them. In order to understand the world, one has to turnaway from it on occasion; in order to serve men better, one has tohold them at a distance for a time. But where can one find thesolitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mindcollects itself and courage gauges its strength?”

“Whatever prevents you from doing your work has become your work.”

“No one in this desert, neither he nor his guest, mattered. And yet, outside this desert neither of them, Daru knew, could have really lived.”

“Friendship is less simple. It is long and hard to obtain but when one has it there's no getting rid of it; one simply has to cope with it. Don't think for a minute that your friends will telephone you every evening, as they ought to, in order to find out if this doesn't happen to be the evening when you are deciding to commit suicide, or simply whether you don't need company, whether you are not in the mood to go out. No, don't worry, they'll ring up the evening you are not alone, when life is beautiful. As for suicide, they would be more likely to push you to it, by virtue of what you owe to yourself, according to them. May heaven protect us, cher Monsieur, from being set upon a pedestal by our friends!”

“You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.”

“As for me, I longed to love as some people long to cry. I felt that every hour I slept now would be an hour stolen from life.”