Georges Simenon

“Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.”

“Trotsky rises to give me his hand, then sits at his desk, gently allowing his regard to light on my person.”

“It was night and I could see a large and calm lake, reflecting the moon. Black mountains rose around it. I arrived from between two of these mountains, I looked at the lake and the moon, and that was it, nothing else happened.”

“I adore life but I don't fear death. I just prefer to die as late as possible.”

“Sunday lay so heavily in the air as to become almost nauseating. Maigret used to claim openly, half seriously, half in fun, that he had always had the knack of sensing a Sunday from his bed, without even having to open his eyes.”

“The fact that we are I don't know how many millions of people, yet communication, complete communication, is completely impossible between two of those people, is to me one of the biggest tragic themes in the world.”

“It just happened. As though a moment comes when it's both necessary and natural to make a decision that has long since been made.”

“I would like to carve my novel in a piece of wood. My characters—I would like to have them heavier, more three-dimensional ... My characters have a profession, have characteristics; you know their age, their family situation, and everything. But I try to make each one of those characters heavy, like a statue, and to be the brother of everybody in the world.”

“I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.”

“The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.”

“Savez-vous que c'est à cause de cette recherche de ce que j'appellerais les compensations, cette rechercher d'un bonheur malgré tout, que naissent les manies et, souvent, les déséquilibres.”

“I saw Mussolini tirelessly contemplate a parade of thousands of young men.”