The most important quality of art and its aim is illusion; emotion, which is often obtained by certain sacrifices of poetic detail,… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
He was bored now when Emma suddenly began to sob on his breast; and his heart, like the people who can only… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
My God, this novel makes me break out in a cold sweat! Do you know how much I've written in five months,… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters. — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
As you get older, the heart shed its leaves like a tree. You cannot hold out against certain winds. Each day tears… — 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
