Quotes from book
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Name: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Author: Jean-Dominique Bauby

Jean-Dominique BaubyOriginal title Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (French, 1997)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a memoir by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes his life before and after suffering a massive stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome.

“The city, that monster with a hundred mouths and a thousand ears, a monster that knows nothing but says everything, had written me off.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death), trans. Jeremy Leggatt (Vintage, 1998, ISBN 0-375-70121-4), p. 82

“Once, I was a master at recycling leftovers. Now I cultivate the art of simmering memories.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“I am fading away. Slowly but surely. Like the sailor who watches his home shore gradually disappear, I watch my past recede. My old life still burns within me, but more and more of it is reduced to the ashes of memory.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“I need to feel strongly, to love and admire, just as desperately as I need to breathe.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly