Muriel Barbery

“I'm afraid to go into myself and see what's going on in there.”

“Sashimi is velvet dust, verging on silk, or a bit of both, and the extraordinary alchemy of its gossamer essence allows it to preserve a milky density unknown even by clouds.... my cheeks recalled the effects of its profound caress.”

“Because beauty consits of it's own passing, just as we reach for it. It's the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you can see both their movement and their death.”

“Then there was Jeannot, who was reminded of another war and who was discovering inside himself the roots of a mad hopefulness that made him want to believe that the present hour might appease the torture of memories, and he could again see the paths of his life opening up before him, paths that came to an abrupt end the day he saw his brother die. Every morning he got up to face this wound that no one could see, and he drank his wine and laughed at stories, and his soul was more bare than a rosebush in winter.”

“Any game where the goal is to build territory has to be beautiful. There may be phases of combat, but they are only means to an end, to allow your territory to survive. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the game of go is that it has been proven that in order to win, you must live, but you must also allow the other player to live. Players who are too greedy will lose: it is a subtle game of equilibrium, where you have to get ahead without crushing the other player. In the end, life and death are only the consequences of how well or how poorly you have made your construction. This is what one of Taniguchi's characters says: you live, you die, these are consequences. It's a proverb for playing go, and for life.”

“To be poor, ugly and, moreover, intelligent condemns one in our society to a dark and disillusioned life...to beauty all is forgiven.”

“I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.”

“And on the way home I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.”

“Talent consists not in inventing shapes but in causing those that were invisible to emerge.”

“קראתי ספרים רבים... ובכל זאת, כמו רוב האנשים הלומדים בכוחות עצמם, אינני בטוחה בכך שאני מבינה אותם.”

“הפוליטיקה היא משחקם של העשירים הקטנים שבו אין הם מרשים לאיש מלבדם להשתתף.”

“נראה לי כי איש לא חשב על כך שאם הקיום הוא חסר היגיון, אין זה חשוב להצליח בו מאוד יותר מאשר להיכשל.”

“יש לה עדינות של קיפוד. מבחוץ היא משוריינת בדוקרנים, כמו מבצר אמיתי, אבל יש לי הרגשה כי מבפנים היא זכה כקיפוד, חיה קטנה עצלנית, בודדת, עקשנית ועדינה עד מאוד.”

“אנשים מאמינים כי הם מלווים את הכוכבים, וגומרים כדגים אדומים בצנצנת מים.”

“כאשר אנו מדברים, קוראים או כותבים, אנו חשים היטב אם המדובר במשפט יפה.”

“העתיד משמש כדי לבנות ההווה בעזרת תוכניות אמיתיות.”

“החידוש האמיתי הוא מה שאינו מתיישן במשך הזמן.”

“אני מאמין כי הדקדוק מהווה דרך גישה ליופי.”

“השעמום נולד יום אחד מן החדגוניות.”

“אינני רואה אלא את הפסיכואנליטיקן כמתחרה של הנצרות על אהבת הסבל המתמשך.”