What I would like to write is a book about nothing, a book without exterior attachments, which would be held together by the innerforce of its style, as the earth without support is held in the air--a book that would have almost no subject or at least in which the subject would be almost invisible.
Gustave FlaubertOne's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.
Gustave FlaubertThat man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust.
Gustave FlaubertRemembering the ball became for Emma a daily occupation. Every time Wednesday came round, she told herself when she woke up: 'Ah! One week ago...two weeks ago...three weeks ago, I was there!' And, little by little, in her memory, the faces all blurred together; she forgot the tunes of the quadrilles; no longer could she so clearly picture the liveries and the rooms; some details disappeared, but the yearning remained.
Gustave Flaubert