24 Quotes by Laurent Binet

Don’t forget that one interpretation never exhausts the sign, that polysemy is a bottomless well where we can hear an infinite number of echoes: a word’s meaning never runs dry.

If Barthes, along with Bachelard, is one of those who have done most to enrich criticism during the last thirty years, it is not as a theoretician of a still hazy semiology, but as the champion of a new pleasure in reading.

Eco listens with interest to the story of a lost manuscript for which people are being killed. He sees a man walk past holding a bouquet of roses. His mind wanders for a second, and a vision of a poisoned monk flashes through it.

What would you do if you ruled the world?” The gigolo replied that he would abolish all laws. Barthes said: “Even grammar?

Conversation is essentially a game of tennis played with a ball of playdough that changes shape each time it crosses the net.

De doden zijn dood en het maakt niet uit of hun een eer wordt bewezen. Het is voor ons, de levenden, dat het iets betekent. De herinnering heeft geen enkel nut voor hen die ze eert, maar ze dient degenen die zich ervan bedienen. Met mijn herinnering bouw ik mijn identiteit op, met haar troost ik me.

The old man rubbed his hands: ‘Ah! A meta-subject! Using language to discuss language, there’s nothing better. I adore that’.

With Barthes, signs no longer need to be signals: they have become clues. A seismic shift. They’re everywhere. From now on, semiology is ready to conquer the world.

He downs the contents of his glass in a single gulp and, looking at Simon, adds: “This is as amusing as a novel.