“At the end of the afternoon she tore herself away from the story to go and buy some tobacco. This would be tricky on a holiday, but never mind, it was mainly a pretext so the story could settle and she’d have the pleasure of meeting up with her new friend again a bit later on.”
— Anna Gavalda
“Fuck! How many times do I have to tell you? The butter goes into a butter dish because otherwise it absorbs all the other smells! And the cheese too! Transparent wrap wasn’t invented for dogs, shit! And what the hell is this? Lettuce? Why did you leave it in a plastic bag? Plastic ruins everything! I’ve already told you, Philibert. Where are all those containers I brought home the other day? And what about this lemon? What’s it doing in the egg compartment? You cut open a lemon, you wrap it up or put it upside down on a plate, capice?”
— Anna Gavalda
“…But friends, those I wanted to please? There are so few, so few… and you’re one of them. You… because you have such a gift for life. You grab hold of it with both hands. You move, you dance, you know how to make the rain and the sunshine in a home. You have this incredible gift for making people around you happy. You’re so at ease, so at ease on this little planet…”
— Anna Gavalda
“It’s a hypothesis. History won’t take us far enough to confirm it. And our certainties never really hold water. One day you feel like dying and the next you realize all you had to do was go down a few stairs to find the light switch so you could see things a bit more clearly.”
— Anna Gavalda
“Life is stronger than you are, even when you deny it, even when you neglect it, even when you refuse to admit it.”
— Anna Gavalda
“I never knew a sorrow that an hour of reading could not assuage, a great man had once said. Let’s put it to the test.”
— Anna Gavalda
“Es dauerte einen Moment, bis er ihr antwortete:Nein, ich spreche von… von eurer Freiheit, glaube ich. Von dem Glück, das ihr habt, für euch zu leben und auf alles andere zu pfeifen.”
— Anna Gavalda
“I think we go well together. I like being with you because I’m never bored. Even when we’re not talking, even when we’re not touching, even when we’re not in the same room, I’m not bored. I’m never bored. I think it’s because I have confidence in you, in your thoughts. Do you understand? I love everything I see in you, and everything I don’t see. I know your faults, but as it turns out, I feel as though your faults go well with my qualities. We’re not afraid of the same things. Even our inner demons go well together! You, you’re worth more than you show…”
— Anna Gavalda