Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution.
Gustave FlaubertWriting this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles.
Gustave FlaubertIt's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.
Gustave Flaubert