"It was indeed mononucléose, but we would conquer it with the resources of French medicine. The doctor began to scribble like a poet in heat." Les Invalides, p. 7

"'Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.' That was Flaubert's opinion, and it is a fair expression of the way it feels if you choose to spend your working days putting words down on a piece of paper." The English Écrevisse, p. 15

I have always had doubts about the literary appetite of people in the film business. An old friend who works in Hollywood confessed that he had read one book in six years, and he was considered a borderline intellectual." (The English Écrevisse [Chapter 2], page 20)

"I had been hoping for live performances, massed bands of toads with their enormous vocal sacs swelling in unison, Salques conducting from his podium, the star contralto toad...