“They exchanged looks full of mischievous security.”

“look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you...”

“I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we know only casually.”

“It was fun to see him becoming sententious again, glorying in a science he had invented, and as positive as a village soothsayer.'So one should neither give nor receive?' I laughed. 'And if the lover is poor, his mistress indigent, then both she and he must tactfully let themselves and each other die?''Let them die,' he repeated.I had accompanied him as far as the revolving glass door of the lobby.'Let them die,' he said again. 'It's less dangerous. I can swear on my word of honor that I never gave a present or made a loan or an exchange of anything except . . . this . . .'He waved both hands in a complicated gesture which fleetingly indicated his chest, his mouth, his genitals, his thighs. Thanks no doubt to my fatigue, I was reminded of an animal standing on its hind legs and unwinding the invisible. Then he resumed his strictly human significance, opened the door, and easily mingled with the night outside, where the sea was already a little paler than the sky.”

“Entre les jeunes mariés ça va trop bien ou ça va trop mal. Et je ne sais pas lequel vaut le mieux. Mais ça ne va jamais tout seul.”

“Le blanc bleuté de ses yeux, presque aussi bleu que sa claire robe d’été, l’arrangement parfait et superflu de sa joue, de sa bouche et de ses paupières, ne le touchèrent pas.”

“Tu es comme l’odeur des roses (…) tu ôtes l’appétit.”