Quotes from book

The Museum of Innocence

“I realized that the longing for art, like the longing for love, is a malady that blinds us, and makes us forget the things we already know, obscuring reality.”

“In poetically well built museums, formed from the heart's compulsions, we are consoled not by finding in them old objects that we love, but by losing all sense of Time.”

“Clocks and calendars do not exist to remind us of the Time we've forgotten but to regulate our relations with others and indeed all of society, and this is how we use them.”

“The gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region.”

“If we give what we treasure most to a Being we love with all our hearts, if we can do that without expecting anything in return, then the world becomes a beautiful place.”

“She looked out the window; in her eyes was the light that you see only in children arriving at a new place, or in young people still open to new influences, still curious about the world because they have not yet been scarred by life.”

“As always after drinking too much, I felt like my own ghost trying to take it's first solo walk outside the body.”

“Whatever anybody says, the most important thing in life is to be happy.”

“When we lose people we love, we should never disturb their souls, whether living or dead. Instead. we should find consolation in an object that reminds you of them, something… I don't know… even an earring”

“People only tell lies when there is something they are terribly frightened of losing.”

“Any intelligent person knows that life is a beautiful thing and that the purpose of life is to be happy," said my father as he watched the three beauties. "But it seems only idiots are ever happy. How can we explain this?”

“After all, a woman who doesn't love cats is never going to be make a man happy.”

“Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.”

“Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life.”

“Happiness means being close to the one you love, that's all. (Taking immediate possession is not necessary.)”