We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.

The corridor couldn't have smelled more strongly of fish guts if we had actually been inside a fish.

In the instant before the door opened, I could almost sense my life expanding just like a river whose waters have begun to swell; for I had never before taken such a drastic step to change the course of my own future. I was like a child tiptoeing along a precipice overlooking the sea. And yet somehow I hadn't imagined a great wave might come and strike me there, and wash everything away.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

I could no more have stopped myself from feeling that sadness than you could stop yourself from smelling an apple that has been cut open on the table before you.

Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can't put the two together.

This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.