It’s true that someone will always say that good and evil don’t exist: that is a person who has never had any dealings with real evil. Good is far less convincing than evil, but it’s because their chemical structures are different. Like gold, good is never found in a pure state in nature: it therefore doesn’t seem impressive. It has the unfortunate tendency not to act; it prefers, passively, to be seen.
Amelie NothombI thought maybe I would become a god, or a goddess, or a president or a Nobel Prize winner.
Amelie NothombOf course you have memories, and these memories are convincing. But it's really at the moment when I write them down - when I write about my relationship with that Japanese boy in Ni d'Eve, Ni d'Adam - that they reach a degree of reality which is incandescent, that I've really conquered a story, understood it and feel that it is really part of me.
Amelie NothombWhen I want to be incognito, I don't wear any hat. Unfortunately, even without the hat, they now recognise me in Paris.
Amelie Nothomb