There is not a single line in this diary that does not call for a correction or a denial...Yes: throughout these pages I meant what I was writing and I meant the opposite; reading them again I feel completely lost...I was lying to myself. How I lied to myself!
Simone de BeauvoirThe past is not a peaceful landscape lying there behind me, a country in which I can stroll wherever I please, and will gradually show me all its secret hills and dales. As I was moving forward, so it was crumbling. Most of the wreckage that can be seen is colourless, distorted, frozen: its meaning escapes me... all that's left is a skeleton. I shall never find my plans again, my hopes and fears - I shall not find myself.
Simone de BeauvoirThe writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels.
Simone de BeauvoirIf you haven't been happy very young, you can still be happy later on, but it's much harder. You need more luck.
Simone de Beauvoir