Quotes from Georges Perec

It seems we only sleep well in our own bed.

Quien no trabaja no come, sí, pero quien trabaja no vive.

Impatience [...] is a twentieth-century virtue. At twenty, when they saw, or thought they saw, what life could be, the sum of bliss it held, the endless conquests it allowed, they realised they would not have the strength to wait. Like anyone else, they could have made it; but all they wanted was to have it made. That is probably the sense in which they were what are commonly called intellectuals.

Parfois, tu rêves que le sommeil est une morte lente qui te gagne, une anestésie douce et terrible à la fois, une nécrose heureuse : le froid monte le long de tes jambes, le long de tes bras, monte lentement, t'engourdit, t'annihile. Ton orteil est une montagne lointaine, ta jambe un fleuve, ta joue est ton oreiller, tu loges tout entier dans ton pouce, tu fonds, tu coules comme du sable, comme du mercure.

Bir ÅŸeyler k?r?l?yordu, bir ÅŸeyler k?r?ld?. Kendini-nas?l demeli?-dayan?kl? hissetmiyorsun art?k: Sana bugüne kadar güç veren-öyle san?yordun, öyle san?yorsun-,yüreÄŸini ?s?tan ÅŸey, varoluÅŸ duygun,neredeyse önemli olduÄŸun duygusu, dünyaya baÄŸlanma,dünyada kalma duygusu eksikliÄŸini hissettirmeye baÅŸl?yor.

cela fait si longtemps que ça dure que j'ai cessé de me demander si c'est dans la haine ou dans l'amour que nous trouvons la force de continuer cette vie mensongère, que nous puisons l'énergie formidable qui nous permet encore de souffrir, et d'espérer.

Who, on seeing a Parisian apartment house, has never thought of it as indestructible? A bomb, a fire, an earthquake could certainly bring it down, but what else? In the eyes of an individual, of a family, or even a dynasty, a town, street, or house seems unchangeable, untouchable by time, by the ups and downs of human life, to such an extent that we believe we can compare and contrast the fragility of our condition to the invulnerability of stone.

What they liked in things they called luxury was only the money behind them; they loved wealth before they loved life.

Non. Tu n'es plus le maître anonyme du monde, celui sur qui l'histoire n'avait pas de prise, celui qui ne sentait pas la pluie tomber, qui ne voyait pas la nuit venir.Tu n'es plus l'inaccessible, le limpide, le transparent. Tu as peur, tu attends. Tu attends, place Clichy, que la pluie cesse de tomber.

If you do not keep on sorting your books, your books unsort themselves

It is on a day like this one, a little later, a little earlier, that you discover, without surprise, that something is wrong, that, without mincing words, you don't know how to live, that you will never know.

As soon as you close your eyes, the adventure of sleep begins. -from A Man Asleep

People who choose to earn money first, people who put off their realplans until later, until they are rich, are not necessarily wrong. People who want only to live, and who reckon living is absolute freedom, the exclusive pursuit of happiness, the sole satisfaction of their desires and instincts, the immediate enjoyment of the boundless riches of the world - such people will always be unhappy.

Sen bir aylak, bir uyurgezersin, bir istiridyesin. Tan?mlar saatlere, günlere göre deÄŸiÅŸiyor ama ta??d?klar? anlam az çok belli: YaÅŸaman?n, harekete geçmenin, bir ÅŸey yapman?n pek sana göre olmad???n? hissediyorsun; sadece sürüp gitmek istiyorsun, sadece bekleyiÅŸi ve unutuÅŸu istiyorsun.

Ölümün için her ÅŸey çoktan haz?r: Seni öldürecek top güllesi çok uzun zaman önceden eritilip döküldü, tabutunun peÅŸinden aÄŸlayacak olan kad?nlar çoktan tutuldu.

I re-read the books I love and I love the books I re-read, and each time it is the same enjoyment, whether I re-read twenty pages, three chapters, or the whole book: an enjoyment of complicity, of collusion, or more especially, and in addition, of having in the end found kin again.

Ne kimseyi görme, ne konuÅŸma, düÅŸünme, d??ar? ç?kma, yerinden k?m?ldama isteÄŸi duyuyorsun.

Önceden düÅŸünülmüÅŸ bir hareket deÄŸil bu, bir hareket de deÄŸil zaten, bir hareket yokluÄŸu, yapmad???n bir hareket,yapmaktan kaç?nd???n hareketler.

Leur vie était comme une trop longue habitude, comme un ennui presque serein : une vie sans rien.

Kay?ts?zl?k iÅŸe yatamaz. Ä°steyebilir ya da istemeyebilirsin, ne fark eder! Bir parti tilt oynamak ya da oynamamak; nas?l olsa biri ayg?t?n deliÄŸine bir yirmibeÅŸlik atacak. Her gün ayn? yemeÄŸi yemekle kararl? bir hareket yapt???n? sanabilirsin. Ne var ki reddediÅŸin iÅŸe yaramaz. Yans?zl???n hiçbir anlam ta??maz. Cans?zl???n öfken kadar abes.

Above all, they had the cinema. And this was probably the only area where they had learned everything from their own sensibilities.

why count the buses? probably because they're recognizable and regular:they cut up time, they punctuate the background noise; ultimately, they're foreseeable

Te t'es arrêté à parler et seul le silence t'a répondu. Mais ces mots, ces milliers, ces millions de mots qui se sont arrêtés dans ta gorge, les mots sans suite, les cris de joie, les mots d'amour, les rires idiots, quand donc les retrouveras-tu? Maintenant tu vis dans le terreur du silence. Mais n'es-tu pas le plus silencieux de tous?

You are alone. You learn how to walk like a man alone. To stroll, to dawdle. To see without looking, to look without seeing. You learn the art of transparency, immobility, inexistence.You learn how to be a shadow and how to look at men as if they were stones.