(Egypt) is a great place for contrasts: splendid things gleam in the dust.

If you participate in life, you don’t see it clearly: you suffer from it too much or enjoy it too much. The artist, to my way of thinking, is a monstrosity, something outside nature. All the misfortunes Providence inflicts on him come from his stubborness in denying that maxim.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.

I don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

I'm absolutely removed from the world at such times...The hours go by without my knowing it. Sitting there I'm wandering in countries I can see every detail of - I'm playing a role in the story I'm reading. I actually feel I'm the characters - I live and breath with them.