Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Quotes
"The strange resonance froze the crowd, as if the sound had won some sort of respect."
"What you are about to hear, comrade, is a Mozart sonata."
"The audacity! But it worked: as if he had heard something miraculous, the headman’s menacing look softened."
"The peasants’ faces, so grim a moment before, softened under the influence of Mozart’s limpid music like parched earth under a shower."
"We were not the first guinea pigs to be used in this grand human experiment, nor would we be the last."
"Our lessons were restricted to the basics of industry and agriculture."
"Their crime was that they were 'stinking scientific authorities'."
"The only thing Luo was really good at was telling stories."
"What’s a dentist? Don’t you know what a dentist is? Dentists take care of your teeth."
"The saying goes, 'that a sincere heart can make even a stone blossom'. So tell me, was the flower girl’s heart lacking in sincerity?"
"He had few personal belongings, and was so anxious to demonstrate his complete trust in the revolutionary peasants that he never used to lock his door."
"It was like Tibetan incense, where you need only say the name, Zang Xiang, to smell the subtle, refined fragrance."
"By the time we had finally learnt to read properly, there had been nothing left for us to read."
"The enthusiasm of the Little Seamstress’s response made us feel even worse about having returned the book."
"In my mind’s eye I could see Luo telling her the story."
"The sky was a heavenly blue, blissful and clear."
"My son likes you very much, did you know? He has mentioned you many times in his letters."
"She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent."
"What I’m really doing is composing poems in my head, while my hands are occupied."
"In her peals of laughter I caught the musky fragrance of wild orchids, stronger than the scent of the flowers lying at her feet."
"It was a desire as old as the world, as old as the desire for children."
"The nobility of its trunk, the grandeur of its branches, the strength of its naked roots."
"The words poured from me. My sentences became more precise, more concrete, more compact."
"It would evidently take more than a political regime, more than dire poverty to stop a woman from wanting to be well dressed."
"I was flabbergasted. How could this tyrant, this political and economic despot, this police chief, ever resign himself to being restrained in this way, which was not only humiliating but also made him look utterly ridiculous?"
"Suddenly, I felt the stirrings of an uncontrollably sadistic impulse, like a volcano about to erupt."
"It was as if the drill were about to break down. It was barely moving now, making just one rotation per second, maybe two—who knows?"
"For a moment the suspense was agonising. I put on an air of innocent, calm deliberation to disguise the hatred smouldering in my eyes."
"Yes indeed, I saw the two of them, both as naked as worms."
"I felt ashamed, it is true, not because I could not take my eyes off them, but because I was so keenly aware of being an old man whose body was limp where it was not bony."
"In the days before his detention, my father used to say that dancing was not something that could be taught, and he was right."
"The same is true of diving and writing poetry, for the best divers and poets are self-taught."
"Suddenly I wondered: 'Who will ever release me from this mountain?'"
"She must have been the only person in the world who still had faith in my ultimate release from reeducation."
"I decided to ignore the affront, and proceeded on my way while the group came closer, jostling me and chanting the cripple’s taunt amid roars of aggressive, sneering laughter."
"The law seemed to have been expressly designed to make things impossible for them."
"That evening, when I left her house with Cousin Pons safely secreted in my bamboo hod, I was made keenly aware of the jealousy gnawing at the hearts of the local bachelors."
"It is hard to imagine a more moving tribute to the gift bestowed by an intellectual on mankind."