“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Crever pour crever, je préfère crever de passion que de crever d'ennui !”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Very well, sir. A woman's opinion, however humble she may be, is always worth listening to, if she's got any sense...If you put yourself in my hands, I shall certainly make a decent man of you.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“La certitude d'avoir empêche de désirer.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Never subject to the rules, believing that the correct judgement and healthy nature keep her in the honesty she lived in.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“His creation was a sort of new religion; the churches, gradually deserted by a wavering faith, were replaced by this bazaar, in the minds of the idle women of Paris. Women now came and spent their leisure time in his establishment, the shivering and anxious hours they formerly passed in churches: a necessary consumption of nervous passion, a growing struggle of the god of dress against the husband, the incessantly renewed religion of the body with the divine future of beauty.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Denise était venue à pied de la gare Saint-Lazare, où un train de Cherbourg l’avait débarquée avec ses deux frères, après une nuit passée sur la dure banquette d’un wagon de troisième classe. Elle tenait par la main Pépé, et Jean la suivait, tous les trois brisés du voyage, effarés et perdus, au milieu du vaste Paris, le nez levé sur les maisons, demandant à chaque carrefour la rue de la Michodière, dans laquelle leur oncle Baudu demeurait. Mais, comme elle débouchait enfin sur la place Gaillon, la jeune fille s’arrêta net de surprise.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Mais il avait oublié l’inventaire, il ne voyait pas son empire, ces magasins crevant de richesses. Tout avait disparu, les victoires bruyantes d’hier, la fortune colossale de demain. D’un regard désespéré, il suivait Denise, et quand elle eut passé la porte, il n’y eut plus rien, la maison devint noire.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“en lo más hondo de aquel empecinamiento, clamaba la rebelión del modesto fabricante artesano contra la invasora vulgaridad de los artículos de bazar.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Le había quedado, de los tiempos en los que soñaba con dedicarse a la literatura y se juntaba con poetas, una desesperación universal.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“no le había quedado más remedio que hacerse una confesión: aún temblaba al ver pasar a Mouret, pero ahora sabía que no era de miedo.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“Yo la quiero... Hace mucho que lo sabe. No juegue el juego cruel de fingir que no entiende... y no tema nada.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
“¿Pero es que no ve lo que estoy sufriendo?... Que estupidez, ¿verdad? ¡Sufro como un niño!”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise
Émile Zola
Born place: in Paris, France
Born date April 2, 1840
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“And so in Moscow they began a systematic search, block by block. Someone had to be arrested everywhere. The slogan was: "We are going to bang our fist on the table so hard that the world will shake with terror!" It was to the Lubyanka, to the Butyrki, that the Black Marias, the passenger cars, the enclosed trucks, the open hansom cabs kept moving, even by day. There was a jam at the gates, a jam in the courtyard. They didn't have time to unload and register those they'd arrested. (And the same situation existed”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, quote from The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books I-II
“Without a word, I walked over to the door and opened it. And when the policeman stepped in, the look on Mr Bartholomew’s face was priceless.”
― Sophie Cleverly, quote from The Whispers in the Walls
“Saying good-bye to Ben is Sarina's least favorite activity. So sad the number of times she's had to do it. Ball games, recitals, the homes of friends, rented shore houses, through car windows after dropping off some forgotten camera to Annie. Goodbye. See you later. Nice seeing you. She has mastered it: A dismissive peck on the cheek. A hug like an afterthought. Telling herself, Do not watch him walk away. Watching him walk away. Watching him drive away. Watching him descend the stairs to the subway. How many times have they said goodbye to each other? Already tonight, twice.
He interrupts her before she can get the second goodbye out.
"How would you feel," he says, "about missing your train?"
Once at the beach, Sarina watched a crane bathing in a gully at dusk. It used its wings to funnel the water over its back, then shook out the excess in a firework of droplets. After several minutes it took off, arcing out over the fretless sea. That felt like this.”
― Marie-Helene Bertino, quote from 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas
“si se para uno a pensarlo, todo es bello en este mundo, salvo lo que nosotros mismos discurrimos y hacemos cuando olvidamos los fines supremos de la existencia y nuestra dignidad humana.”
― Anton Chekhov, quote from Stories
“I can’t drink Nescafé, sir,” I lied, not knowing how to tell him that I found its taste revolting.”
― Maziar Bahari, quote from Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival
One True Thing
The Queen of Bedlam
Live to Tell
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A Bend in the River
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