104 Quotes by Patrick Modiano

Did you see her again in France?" I asked him.”“No. When I got to France, she was already dead. She committed suicide ...”“Why?”“She often told me she was frightened of getting old...

Quand on aime vraiment quelqu'un, il faut accepter sa part de mystère... et c'est pour ça qu'on l'aime...

I noticed a phenomenon that doesn't often happen toa man: several women turned round as he passed them.

When he was younger, he used the slightest opportunity to slip away from people, without his being able to understand very clearly why he did so: a longing to break free and to breathe in the fresh air?

...we had no real qualities, except the one that youth gives to everyone for a very brief time, like a big promise that will never be kept.

How much longer would we go on being old young people? They wavedgoodbye to me. I was moved by Annette. She and I wereexactly the same age, and she'd become one of those slightlyfaded Danish beauties who used to attract me when I wastwenty. They were older than I was at that time, and I wasgrateful for their tender protection.

Une petite fille rentre de la plage, au crépuscule, avec sa mère. Elle pleure pour rien, parce qu'elle aurait voulu continuer de jouer. Elle s'eloigne. Elle a déjà tourné le coin de rue, et nos vies ne sont-elles pas aussi rapides à se dissiper dans le soir que ce chagrin d'enfant?

That is her secret. A poor and precious secret that not even the executioners, the decrees, the occupying authorities, the Depot, the barracks, the camps, History, time-everything that defiles and destroys you-have been able to take away from her.

Something—he wondered later if it was simply his youth—something that had weighed upon him until that moment broke off him, the way a piece of rock slides slowly into the sea and disappears in a spray of foam.