It should not be Illiers-Combray that we visit: a genuine homage to Proust would be to look at our world through his eyes, not look at his world through our eyes.
Alain de BottonMy writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.
Alain de BottonIn Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.
Alain de BottonThe largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".
Alain de Botton