Louis de Bernières

“That is a terrifically intimate thing, to be in a house when it is sleeping.”

“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.”

“When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision.”

“Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.”

“History is the propaganda of the victors.”

“Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.”

“We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other.”

“Sometimes it is the smallest things that make the biggest difference.”

“It is not a war, it is a slaughter. It is the emptiness of the soul that is the final horror.”

“Patriotism is a vice that has been lauded as a virtue.”

“It is a terrible thing to see a man who has been cowed.”

“Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It's loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.”

“The sea has no memory. It is a mirror that forgets.”

“The truth is that I am a hopeless romantic. I love love. I believe in love at first sight.”

“In every work of art, the artist himself is present.”