48 Quotes by Georges Perec

Enthusiasm is no state of mind for a historian.

A trente ans, l'on se doit d'être arrivé, ou bien l'on n'est rien. Et nul n'est arrivé s'il n'a trouvé sa place, s'il n'a creusé son trou, s'il n'a ses clés, son bureau, sa petite plaque.

Estás solo, y al estar solo, no has de mirar nunca la hora, no has de contar nunca los minutos. No has de abrir de nuevo tu correo febrilmente, no has de seguir decepcionado si sólo encuentras en él un prospecto invitándote a adquirir por la módica suma de setenta y siete francos los tesoros del arte occidental o una vajilla de postre con tus iniciales grabadas. Has de olvidarte de esperar, de emprender, de tener éxito, de perseverar. Te dejas llevar, y eso te resulta casi fácil.

If you do not keep on sorting your books, your books unsort themselves

Parfois, tu rêves que le sommeil est une morte lente qui te gagne, une anestésie douce et terrible à la fois, une nécrose heureuse : le froid monte le long de tes jambes, le long de tes bras, monte lentement, t'engourdit, t'annihile.Ton orteil est une montagne lointaine, ta jambe un fleuve, ta joue est ton oreiller, tu loges tout entier dans ton pouce, tu fonds, tu coules comme du sable, comme du mercure.

What they liked in things they called luxury was only the money behind them; they loved wealth before they loved life.

Kayıtsızlık dili geçersiz kılıyor,işaretleri anlaşılmaz hale getiriyor.Sabırlısın ama beklemiyorsun, özgürsün ama seçmiyorsun,müsaitsin ama hiçbir şey seni harekete geçirmiyor. Hiçbir şey istemiyor,hiçbir şey talep etmiyor, hiçbir şeyi dayatmıyorsun.Hiç dinlemeden duyuyor,hiç bakmadan görüyorsun.

This is how space begins, with words only, signs traced on the blank page. To describe space: to name it, to trace it, like those portolano-makers who saturated the coastlines with the names of harbours, the names of capes, the names of inlets, until in the end the land was only separated from the sea by a continuous ribbon of text. Is the aleph, that place in Borges from which the entire world is visible simultaneously, anything other than an alphabet?

Time, which sees to everything, has provided the solution,despite yourself.Time, that knows the answer, has continued to flow.It is on a day like this one, a little later, a little earlier,that everything starts again,that everything starts,that everything continues