Quotes from book

A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

“To make someone wait: the constant prerogative of all power, "age-old pastime of humanity".”

“The lover's fatal identity is precisely this: I am the one who waits.”

“I encounter millions of bodies in my life; of these millions, I may desire some hundreds; but of these hundreds, I love only one.”

“Someone tells me: this kind of love is not viable. But how can you evaluate viability? Why is the viable a Good Thing? Why is it better to last than to burn?”

“I make the other’s absence responsible for my worldliness.”

“This endured absence is nothing more or less than forgetfulness. I am, intermittently, unfaithful. This is the condition of my survival.”

“Isn’t the most sensitive point of this mourning the fact that I must lose a language — the amorous language? No more ‘I love you’s.”