“In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings,… — Patrick Suskind Copy Share Image
“He had no use for sensual gratification, unless that gratification consisted of pure, incorporeal odors.” — Patrick Süskind Copy Share Image
“...if you could not close a door behind you to take a shit in the city - even if it was just the door to a shared toilet - if this one, most essential freedom was taken away from you, the freedom, that is, to withdraw from other people when necessity called, then all other freedoms were worthless. Then life… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share
With one glance he had got himself trapped in the brown fundament of her eyes, he was in danger of sinking, as if into… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share Image
“…in that moment, as he saw and smelled how irresistible its effect was and how with lightning speed it spread and made captives of the people all around him—in that moment his whole disgust for humankind rose up again within him and completely soured his triumph, so that he felt not only no joy, but not even the least bit… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share
“People even travelled to Lapland, up there in the North, with its eternal ice and savages who gorged themselves on raw fish.” — Patrick Süskind Copy Share Image
When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share Image
For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share
“The wind blew cold, and he was freezing, but he did not notice that he was freezing, for within him was a counterfrost, fear.” — Patrick Suskind Copy Share Image
“Something was happening while you waited. The most essential thing was happening. And even if he himself was doing nothing, it was happening through him nevertheless. He had done his best. He had employed all his artistic skill. He had made not one single mistake. His performance had been unique. It would be crowned with success… He need only wait… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share
“Although he had used it very sparingly, the perfume that he had mixed in Montpellier was slowly was slowly running out. He created a new one. But this time he was not content simply to imitate basic human odor by hastily tossing together some ingredients; he made it a matter of pride to acquire a personal odor, or better yet,… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share
He had withdrawn solely for his own personal pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in… — Patrick Süskind Copy Share Image
“This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles, not that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water... and at the same time it had warmth, but not as bergamot, cypress, or musk… — Patrick Suskind Copy Share
