Madame Bovary is myself.

After the pain of this disappointment her heart once more stood empty, and the succession of identical days began again.

What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.

Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.

The most important quality of art and its aim is illusion; emotion, which is often obtained by certain sacrifices of poetic detail, is something else entirely and of an inferior order.

I do not like to "interest" the public with myself.

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.