“Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane”

“In the first woman we love, we love everything. Growing older, we love the woman only.”

“Man can start with aversion and end with love, but if he begins with love and comes round to aversion he will never get back to love.”

“Love is the reduction of the universe to the single being, and the expansion of a single being, even to God”

“But also remember: if you have any genuine feelings, hide them like treasure; never let anyone so much as suspect them, or you're lost. Instead of being the executioner, you'll be the victim. And if you ever fall in love, keep that absolutely secret! Never breathe a word until you're completely sure of the person to whom you open your heart. And to protect that love, even before you feel it, learn to despise the world.”

“What leads me to accredit the truth of what great Savonati has conveyed to us is the way in which he conscientiously tells us everything. In novels written nowadays, writers pay little heed to their heroes' stomachs. They send them off on errands, embroil them in adventures which leave them as breathless as the reader, and yet they are never hungry. In this respect, they bear little resemblance to the author. In my opinion, this, more than anything else, serves to discredit this type of work. Does anybody eat in René? ... Whatever period you depict, you will find that people had dinner.”

“I am not deep, but I am very wide.”