French quotations

Page 3

◆ The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of Franglais and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore.

- Stephen Fry99

◆ But then it came time for me to make my journey—into America. [... N]o coincidence that my first novel is called Americana. That became my subject, the subject that shaped my work. When I get a French translation of one of my books that says 'translated from the American', I think, 'Yes, that's exactly right.

- Don DeLillo98

◆ Le bonheur est un oiseau qui se pose sur la paume de la main pour le garder il ne faut pas essayer de le saisir.

- Noureddine Khedim98

◆ I was deeply interested in the little family history which he detailed to me with all that candor which a Frenchman indulges whenever mere self is the theme.

- Edgar Allan Poe98

◆ The scent of him was subtle, beautifully fresh, and she couldn't think clearly. No man had ever brought out these intense feelings in her. Chris Augustine was dangerous and she could get lost in his arms.

- Suzan Battah98

◆ What isn't clear, isn't French.

- Antoine de Rivarol98

◆ Quand tu es dépendant des autres pour le moindre geste, il faut être pote avec la grande aiguille de l'horloge. La patience est un art qui s'apprend patiemment.

- Grand corps malade98

◆ You're as strong as the Pont Neuf. You'll live to bury us all!

- Marcel Proust98

◆ Adieu, mon cher vieux. Relis et reb?che ton conte. Laisse-le reposer et reprends-le, les livres ne se font pas comme les enfants, mais comme les pyramides, avec un dessin prémédité, et en apportant des grands blocs l′un par-dessus l′autre, à force de reins, de temps et de sueur, et ?a ne sert à rien! et ?a reste dans le désert! mais en le dominant prodigieusement. Les chacals pissent au bas et les bourgeois montent dessus, etc.; continue la comparaison.

- Gustave Flaubert98

◆ You will do well to take advantage of Madame's short residence to get up your French a little... You will be glad of this, my dear, when you have reached France, where you will find they speak nothing else.

- Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu98

◆ Flambé - done beside a table covered in crisp starched linen in a French restaurant: a method to burn food and money simultaneously.

- Scott Archer Jones98

◆ Le désir était un crime de la pensée.

- George Orwell98

◆ Une cour des miracles dans un labyrinthe de luxe.

- Pierre Assouline98

◆ J'aurais d? traverser l'existence avec ce privilège que donne la beauté, de pouvoir prendre les hommes et les jeter. Au lieu de quoi c'étaient eux qui m'abandonnaient ou mouraient. Ou bien se mariaient.

- Ian McEwan98

◆ Celui qui n'est pas passionné devient tout au plus un pédagogue; c'est toujours par l'intérieur qu'il faut aller aux choses, toujours, toujours en partant de la passion.

- Stefan Zweig98