When his wife was at his side, she was also in front of him, marking out the horizon of his life. Now the horizon is empty: the view has changed.

We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.

Sensuality is the total mobilization of the senses: an individual observes his partner intently, straining to catch every sound.

A constant interrogation.

But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?

But which was the real me? Let me be perfectly honest: I was a man of many faces. (p.33)

No one can give anyone else the gift of the idyll; only an animal can do so, because only animals were not expelled from Paradise. The love between dog and man is idyllic. It knows no conflicts, no hair-raising scenes; it knows no development.