It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

I would like the events never to be told directly by the author, but rather to be introduced (and several times, from various angles) by those among the characters on whom they will have had any effect. I would like those events, in the account they will make of them, to appear slightly distorted; a kind of interest stems, for the reader, from the simple fact that he should need to restore. The story requires his collaboration in order to properly take shape.

Of some forty families I have been able to observe, I know hardly four in which the parents do not act in such a way that nothing would be more desirable for the child than to escape their influence.

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.

The individual never asserts himself more than when he forgets himself.

Understanding is the beginning of approving.

The important thing is being capable of emotions, but to experience only one's own would be a sorry limitation.