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

He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world!

And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.

People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.

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

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

Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.