Atheism. There is not a single exalting and emancipating influence that does not in turn become inhibitory.
Andre GideThen you think that one can keep a hopeless love in one's heart for so long as that?...And that life can breathe upon it every day, without extinguishing it?
Andre GideWe prefer to go deformed and distorted all our lives rather than not resemble the portrait of ourselves which we ourselves have first drawn. Itโs absurd. We run the risk of warping whatโs best in us
Andre GideI 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.
Andre GideLife never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
Andre GideMan! The most complex of creatures, and for this reason the most dependant of creatures. On everything that has formed you, you may depend. Do not balk at this apparent slavery....a debtor to many, you pay for your advantages by the same number of dependencies. Understand that independence is a form of poverty; that many things claim you, that many also claim kinship with you.
Andre Gide