Quotes from Romain Gary

Trop, c'est personne.

Morally speaking, the fathers of the hydrogen bomb had nothing to do with the latter. They were cracking not ethics, not culture, not our soul, but a scientific and technological problem.

Also, for the man, there is still one more loophole. If, by the grace of God, she's humble by nature and and ready to assume guilt, she might just think: 'I don't turn him on,' or 'He doesn't love me any longer.' And there it is, then understanding between the sexes, my friend. You can always blame it on her.

After all,' he said, "I suppose there are things that nothing can kill and that remain forever intact. It's as if nothing could ever happen to human beings. They're a species over which it's not easy to triumph. They've a way of rising from the ashes, smiling and holding hands.

For months we had been talking of him and him alone, and yet it was difficult to believe in his existence — he was more like a legend to us — and quite a few of us were convinced that the authorities had invented him, him and his elephants, to distract attention from the political unrest that was the real cause of trouble in the Oule country.

Quand on a deux corps, il vient des moments où l'on est à moitié.

Amo tutti i popoli, ma nessuna nazione. Sono un patriota, non un nazionalista." "Che differenza c'è?" "Il patriottismo è amare la propria gente; il nazionalismo è odiare gli altri.

This was however NOT the scientist's responsibility. Morally speaking, the fathers of the hydrogen bomb had nothing to do with the latter. They were cracking not ethics, not culture, not our soul, but a scientific and technological problem.

There is, of course, Niemen, in Switzerland, and Horsschitt, in Germany... It all depends on what you mean by 'love'.

all intolerable local situations have become world situations, with the result that the whole world has become a local situation, here, under your nose, staring at you, and when your sensitivity is still alive and not dulled, that is, when you are young, if all you can do is stare back at it helplessly, you run amok, you blow up, you smash whatever is at hand, you express yourself, you seek a release.

Il fut donc à la fois profondément rassuré et attristé lorsqu'il atteignirent la camionnette et qu'ils purent monter et démarrer sans qu'un seul coup de feu fût tiré. C'était, par une fois, une révolution authentique et nouvelle, qui méritait de gagner et de durer, comme celle de Juan Bosch, mais qui allait perdre, parce qu'elle était trop belle. Elle allait durer ce que durent les roses.

Les Américains ne peuvent supporter l'idée d'un problème sans solution.

Besides, nothing mattered to her any longer. If she had anything left it was her horror of cold — and the uncle had coal through his contacts. But she found the atmosphere of Berlin hard to bear. She dreamed of escape, of going to live under some more clement sky, far, very far away from it all, closer to nature.

He always remembered it vividly when he was in physical pain and when the limit of his strength seemed to have been reached, and it was a memory that helped him every time to hold out and to go on.

All that was still needed was genuine inspiration, a flash of pure poetry that would make all the difference between an elaborate, overcomplicated and clumsy effort and the simplicity of beauty.

There were unfinished paintings against the wall that look promising because they were unfinished, and some finished ones that looked beyond hope.

She knew that Fort Lamy was a long way away, on the other side of the Sahara, in the middle of Africa — another world. Another world — and that was exactly what she needed. There at last she would be able to satisfy her need for warmth — even at Tunis there were moments when the cold was more than she could take.

He thought of all that the newspapers were printing about him. Each man attributed to him his own hopes, his own motives and rancors, and his own secret misanthropy: it was in vain that he stated his own aims clearly; there was nothing he could do about it. And yet the truth was clear; it could hardly be clearer. He loved all those free roots that gave their beauty to the earth and to man's life on it. He loved nature, and he had always done his best to defend it.

He had even tried the violin a few years earlier. Anything to switch talents, but there was no escape. The compulsion was identical to that of any composer or poet for whom the meaning of his life was creation. One could only wonder what Picasso would have done to the world if he had been born a physicist. Terrifying thought . . .

La vérité, c'est qu'il y a une quantité incroyable de gouttes qui ne font pas déborder le vase.

My body had become that of an old liar, and my most spontaneous transports had begun to end in calculated maneuverings and delayed deliveries. It was no longer a question of self-esteem or pride; when I thought of breaking up with her, it was not to avoid some sort of discomfiture: it was a question of authenticity. I loved Laura too much to drag myself along on crutches in the wake of our love.

You know, Chavez, what Kaiser Wilhelm said after he had caused the death of millions? He said: 'Ich habe das nicht gewollt.' I didn't want THIS to happen. A worthy epitaph for mankind.

He wondered, with some annoyance, whether he would finally learn what he wanted to know, or if he would have in the end to content himself with what he already knew. He felt that, at his age, patience was ceasing to be a virtue and was becoming a luxury he could less and less afford.

What'll be needed," Chavez said, "is an educational campaign. We must help people to adjust to the new age and convince them there is no harmful effect or any kind of damage to themselves . . ." "Yeah," Mathieu muttered. "Promotion.. It's called promotion in the West, indoctrination in the East.