I am finding it very hard to get my novel started. I suffer from stylistic abscesses; and sentences keep itching without coming… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“What could be better than to sit besides the fire with a book and a glowing lamp while the wind beats outside… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“The morality of art consists, for everyone, in the side that flatters its own interests. People do not like literature.” — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“To return to antiquity [in literature]: that has been done. To return to the Middle Ages: that too has been done. Remains… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
He loved a book because it was a book; he loved its odor, its form, its title. What he loved in a… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Let us not kid ourselves; let us remember that literature is of no use whatever, except in the very special case of… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“My novel is the rock to which I cling and I know nothing of what is taking place in the world.” — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.” — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague “she” of all the poetry books. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“Haven't you ever happened to come across in a book some vague notion that you've had, some obscure idea that returns from… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
As for the piano, the faster her fingers flew over it, the more he marveled. She struck the keys with aplomb and ran from… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
“But her life was as cold as an attic facing north; and boredom, like a silent spider, was weaving its web in the shadows,… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
When you reduce a woman to writing, she makes you think of a thousand other women — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
The writer must wade into life as into the sea, but only up to the navel. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
