To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter.

A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to take it off of you.

Art must take reality by surprise.

The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read.

Marriage? It's like asparagus eaten with vinaigrette or hollandaise, a matter of taste but of no importance.

Every little girl knows about love. It is only her capacity to suffer because of it that increases.

Of course the illusion of art is to make one believe that great literature is very close to life, but exactly the opposite is true. Life is amorphous, literature is formal.

I always believe things are going to work out.

Every time I see a film about Joan of Arc I'm convinced she'll get away with it. It's the only way to get through life.

Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.

Writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. Much of the time life is a sort of rhythmic progression of three characters. If one tells oneself that life is like that, one feels it less arbitrary.

After Proust, there are certain things that simply cannot be done again. He marks off for you the boundaries of your talent.

All my life, I will continue obstinately to write about love, solitude and passion among the kind of people I know. The rest don't interest me.

For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.

I had a strong desire to write and some free time.

I've read Proust and Stendhal. That keeps you in your place.

I've tried very hard and I've never found any resemblance between the people I know and the people in my novels.

It would be bad form for me to describe people I don't know and don't understand.

One can never speak enough of the virtues, the dangers, the power of shared laughter.

You should celebrate the end of a love affair as they celebrate death in New Orleans, with songs, laughter, dancing and a lot of wine.