Quotes from Georges Simenon

He didn't reply. He would have given a lot to share that improvised meal, those potatoes cooked under ash, those sausages browned by time, that wine that appeared so refreshing!

That's old Bariteau on his way to laying his eel nets. He won't be back for another two hours.' How could old Bariteau see his way in all this blackness? God knows. You sensed the presence of the sea, very close, just at the end of the narrows. You could breathe it in. It was swelling, irresistibly invading the straits.

Could you tell me, Maigret, why plainclothes policemen always go around in twos, just like plumbers?

It showed 9.30. In Paris, on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, if spring had also come at last, Madame Maigret in her dressing gown and slippers would have opened the windows and tidied the bedroom while a stew simmered on the stove.

It was only now, at this precise moment, that Maigret became fully aware of the situation. He literally saw himself, sitting comfortably in his armchair, his legs stretched towards the fire, warming his glass of armagnac in the hollow of his hand. He realized that it wasn't he who was talking, asking questions, but this short, thin, calm man, the same man who, only a few minutes earlier, had been dragging a dead body to the sea.

The most remarkable thing was that Maigret already believed him! It was as if he were under a spell in this silent house where nothing could be heard but the crackling of the logs and where, during the silences, you were aware of the distant murmur of the sea.

Outside, people were walking quickly, their hands in their pockets, their faces stiff with cold, all with their own little affairs, their own little concerns in their heads, all with their personal dramas, their need to do something.

Everyone is afraid. We help young children overcome their fears with fairy tales, and then as soon as they get to school they are scared of showing their parents a school report with bad marks in it. Fear of water. Fear of fire. Fear of animals, fear of the dark. Fear, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, of making wrong choices and ruining your life.

Civilised men fear wild creatures, especially wild creatures of their own kind who remind them of life in the primeval forests of past ages.

Oh, by the way, while I was having a glass of your delicious gueuze beer, I spotted a crook…

Was it he who had shacked up with the two Martini women, the mother with the plastered face and the daughter with the callipygian figure? … Was it he who had immersed himself blissfully in the crapulous laziness of the Liberty Bar? …

You expect all kinds of things, but what real life throws up is always more bizarre.

Nem lehet boldoggá tenni az embereket akaratuk ellenére... Viszont ami a boldogtalanná tevést illeti...

It was an extraordinary moment, and Maigret would never forget the taste of it. First the late-night weariness, and that smell of wet wool. That unknown corridor that seemed to go on for ever. Again they heard the foghorn.

It was a great gift of his, being able to sleep anywhere, at any time, and forget his worries from one second to the next.

on the story. The other

Più io sono goffo avvicinandomi a lei e più, ne sono sicuro, lei è contenta. È il mio turbamento che osserva piuttosto di pensare al suo piacere, quell'attimo in cui per un miracolo che si riproduce alcuni milioni di volte al giorno, un corpo di donna diventa per un uomo la sola cosa importante al mondo.

The judge sighed and said something unexpected: 'This is all very regrettable, inspector!' Overhead, the piano was still being played, and Chopin's chords harmonized perfectly with the atmosphere of this grand house where life should have been so sweet. 'See you later!' Maigret said abruptly, like a man resisting temptation.

Everyone was watching Maigret. Children followed him, one of them imitating his heavy gait.

Sono persone che si danno arie da borghesi. Io non mi sognerei mai di far studiare mio figlio da avvocato

Savez-vous que c'est à cause de cette recherche de ce que j'appellerais les compensations, cette rechercher d'un bonheur malgré tout, que naissent les manies et, souvent, les déséquilibres.

Arrivava solido come il granito, e da quel momento pareva che tutto dovesse spezzarsi contro di lui, sia che avanzasse, sia che restasse piantato sulle gambe leggermente divaricate.

Sono cose di cui non ci si vanta, cose che a parlarne farebbero sorridere e che pure richiedono una certa dose di eroismo.

I'm worried that the chicken may be overcooked Ã¢â'¬Â¦Ã¢â'¬â"¢ she said as she served Maigret. And her tone was the one in which she might have said, for example: 'I'm afraid of everything! I don't know what's going on. Holy Virgin, protect me!