“My most important problem was destroying the lines of demarcation that separate what seems real from what seems fantastic.”

“But in the days that followed I realized he was only what he seemed: a giant baby with a heart too big for his body.”

“Everything that goes into my mouth seems to make me fat, everything that comes out of my mouth embarrasses me.”

“Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.”

“It is impossible to explain. But what I like most is to eat.”

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”

“She was the only person in the house, of either sex, who did not seem to have a heart pierced by the sorrow of thwarted love.”