Quotes from Patrick Modiano

Era mai possibile che l'incidente dell'altra notte avesse provocato una simile frattura nella mia esistenza, e che ormai ci fossero un prima e un dopo? Ho

He had us sit on a bench, then he posed us in front of a wall shaded by a row of trees, on Avenue Denfert-Rochereau. I've kept one of those shots. My girlfriend and I are sitting on the bench. To me it's as if they were other people, not us, because of the years that have passed, or maybe because of what Jansen saw through his lens, which we wouldn't have seen in a mirror at the time: two anonymous teenagers lost in Paris.

Altri, come lui, proprio prima della mia nascita, avevano patito pene di ogni sorta per consentire a noi di provare soltanto piccoli dispiaceri.

Non ero veramente me stessa se non nel momento in cui fuggivo. Gli unici bei ricordi che ho sono ricordi di fughe vere e proprie o di scappatelle da casa.

One day, when I'd expressed surprise at that feigned carelessness, he'd told me you had to 'approach things gently and quietly or they pull away,

Why am I so diffident and apprehensive when it comes to something that means a lot to me?

I was amazed that the roar of traffic had stopped farther over toward Denfert-Rochereau, as if the feeling of absence and emptiness that Jansen left was spreading in concentric circles and Paris was gradually clearing out.

He thought a photographer was nothing, that he should blend into the surroundings and become invisible, the better to work and capture—as he said—natural light. One shouldn't even hear the click of the Rolleiflex.

Il y a des etres mysterieux - toujours les memes - qui se tiennent en sentinelles a chaque carrefour de votre vie.

Son seres que dejan pocas huellas tras de sí. Personas casi anónimas. Nunca se alejan de ciertas calles de París, de ciertos paisajes de suburbio donde descubrí, por casualidad que habían vivido. Lo que se sabe de ellas se resume en una simple dirección. Y esta precisión topográfica contrasta con todo lo que se igonrará para siempre de su vida... ese vacío, ese bloque de desconocimiento y silencio.

El éxtasis no dura mucho, sin embargo. No tiene porvenir. Pronto nuestro impulso es frenado en seco.