This perfume was not like any perfume known before. It was not a scent that made things smell better... it was completely new, capable of creating a whole world, a magical, rich world, and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich, so at ease, so free, so fine.

...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.

Not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one, an excitement burning with a cold flame.

He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and malice.

How quickly the apparently solidly laid foundation of one's existence could crumble.

When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love.

He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.