15 Quotes by Julien Gracq

Tout ce qu’on introduit dans un roman devient signe.

De nouveau il entendit la porte s'ouvrir, et, calme, du fond de la chambre, il vit venir à lui sa dernière heure.

This stretch through the fogbound forest gradually lulled Grange into his favorite daydream; in it he saw an image of his life: all that he had he carried with him; twenty feet away, the world grew dark, perspectives blurred, and there was nothing near him but this close halo of warm consciousness, this nest perched high above the vague earth.

...a redoubtable alchemy was at work behind impenetrable veils as the forest prepared its nocturnal mysteries.

Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not descended over it in one fell swoop: it had continued to steal a march here and there, in a discontinuous way, and over short distances, like a laborer who feels his cart jolt on a section of Roman road that crosses his field...

A history of literature, unlike history as such, ought to list only victories, for its defeats are no victory for anyone.

She felt herself to be at one of those nodes of the planet's human vibrations where absolute calm, albeit engendered by the juggling interference of contrary motions, is all the more soothing in its perilous instability.

Ce qui commence par : "Je me hâtais de déplaire exprès, par crainte de déplaire naturellement" (Mauriac) continue par : "Je me hâtais d'échouer exprès,par crainte d'échouer naturellement", et pourrait se terminer un jour par : "Je me hâtais de mourir exprès,par crainte de mourir naturellement" (une phrase d'excellent comique).

J'ai lu quelque part que la mort était une société secrète...Ce qui n'est qu'une fin, un pis-aller, et c'est peu dire, pour la plupart des êtres, ne peut-il devenir pour d'autres une vocation? - Quelquefois, et jamais autant que ce soir, je me le suis demandé. Et - comme toutes les vocations - contagieuse.