“If not later, when?” My father liked it. “If not later, when?” It echoed Rabbi Hillel’s famous injunction, “If not now, when?” — André Aciman Later Copy Share Image
“Anchise, all of them trying to teach him a Neapolitan song. It was not only the national hymn of their southern youth,… — André Aciman Song Copy Share Image
“I didn’t want to swim in the lovely, clear pool of his eyes unless I’d been invited to—and I never waited long… — André Aciman Didn Want Copy Share Image
“He would never know, just as the people we buy the newspaper from and then fantasize about all night have no idea… — André Aciman Fantasize Copy Share Image
“I can, from the distance of years now, still think I’m hearing the voices of two young men singing these words in… — André Aciman Last night Copy Share Image
“He was my secret conduit to myself—like a catalyst that allows us to become who we are, the foreign body, the pacer,… — André Aciman Soulmate Copy Share Image
“How I loved the way he repeated what I myself had just repeated. It made me think of a caress, or of… — André Aciman First time Copy Share Image
“Next to it on the wall was a framed postcard of Monet's berm. I recognized it immediately. 'It used to be mine,… — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“I had known it would hurt. What I hadn’t expected was that the hurt would find itself coiled and twisted into sudden… — André Aciman Hurt Copy Share Image
“Occasionally you'll say "Excuse me" when I happen to stand in your way, and "Thank you" when your ball drifts into my… — André Aciman Excuse Copy Share Image
“Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the truth, maybe I didn't want things to turn abstract, but I felt I… — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“We make assumptions about how our lives are being charted without knowing that we’re even making these assumptions—which is the beauty of… — André Aciman Beauty Copy Share Image
“I wanted to hear his window open, hear his espadrilles on the balcony, and then the sound of my own window, which… — André Aciman Desire Copy Share Image
“But I wasn’t fooling myself. I was convinced that no one in the world wanted him as physically as I did; nor… — André Aciman Every night Copy Share Image
“You are the only person I’d like to say goodbye to when I die, because only then will this thing I call… — André Aciman Cease to exist Copy Share Image
“I knew there’d be no coming back from this. When it happened, it happened not as I’d dreamed it would, but with… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I wanted to tell him that the pool, the garden, the house, the tennis court, the orle of paradise, the whole place,… — André Aciman Bathing suit Copy Share Image
Am I the only person who wishes he could escape his own life for a few hours? — Andre Aciman Escape Copy Share Image
“That day belongs to a different time warp. We should learn to leave sleeping dogs—” — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“And we'll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts.” — André Aciman Envy Copy Share Image
“When it comes to the senses all humans speak the same beastly tongue” — André Aciman Senses Copy Share Image
“for you in silence, somewhere in Italy in the mid-eighties.” — André Aciman Eighties Copy Share Image
“I could speak about the Haydn for hours—what a lovely friendship this might have been.” — André Aciman Lovely Friendship Copy Share Image
In Alexandria, my birthplace and my home, all streets bearing Jewish names have been renamed. — Andre Aciman Alexandria Copy Share Image
I tolerate lots of people I have no patience or respect for. Then, as soon as I can, I rat on them. — Andre Aciman Patience Copy Share Image
“He was obviously proud of his Berber skin. "This is the colour of wheat and gold.” — André Aciman Obviously Proud Copy Share Image
Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn't die right away; it took four decades… — Andre Aciman Father Copy Share Image
“I'm not sure I want to go ahead with this, but I need to know, and better with you than anyone else.… — André Aciman Want Know Copy Share Image
“Jewish?" "Moslem?" I replied. "Just like a Jew: always answers with a question." "Just like a Moslem: always answers the wrong question.” — André Aciman Judaism Copy Share Image
“Say nothing and he' ll think you regret having written. Say anything and it will be out of place. Do what, then?… — André Aciman Regret Copy Share Image
“I liked forgetting my cares. Thanks to wine, you didn't forget them, they just stopped scaring you for a while.” — André Aciman Forgetting Copy Share Image
“I began, reluctantly, to steal from the present to pay off debts I knew I'd incur in the future. This, I knew,… — André Aciman Sunny afternoon Copy Share Image
With Eric Rohmer - as with Mozart, Austen, James, and Proust - we need to remember that art is seldom about life,… — Andre Aciman Art Copy Share Image
“But Later! was also a way of avoiding saying goodbye, of making light of all goodbyes. You said Later! not to mean… — André Aciman Goodbye Copy Share Image
“Watching him wearing my clothes was an unbearable turn-on. And he knew it. It was turning both of us on. The thought… — André Aciman Cock Copy Share Image
“I knew that he was filled with grief when he finally kissed me one last time in one of the bathroom stalls… — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“Whatever happens between us, Elio, I just want you to know. Don’t ever say you didn’t know.” He was still chewing. In… — André Aciman Meant Copy Share Image
“Or had I come with a far more menial purpose? To find him living alone, waiting for me, craving to be taken… — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“I could spend the rest of my life like this: with him, at night, in Rome, my eyes totally shut, one leg… — André Aciman Andre-aciman Copy Share Image
“Then he kissed me, and kissed me again, deeply this second time, as if he too was finally letting go. At some… — André Aciman Gaze Copy Share Image
