Indeed, there is nothing more arbitrary than intervening as a stranger in a destiny which is not ours.

This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons that have been offered in explanation have seemed adequate.

In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid.

The day had been spent in the expectation of these hours, and now they were crumbling away, becoming, in their turn, another period of expectancy...It was a journey without end, leading to an indefinite future, eternally shifting just as she was reaching the present.

She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.

In fact, people seem to be tired of fiction now. There are so many other ways of exploring humanity - by ethnology, psychoanalysis, and so on. It's a little boring to make up stories. So many people think that it's better to be very close to reality and to recount one's life as it is rather than to fictionalize, as they say, that is to transpose, and therefore to cheat.

Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear, without having so much as a smile for the young future.