“Dr. Pangloss reminds us that we are living in the best of all possible worlds, so live it up, suckers!” — The Author
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes. Quotes below attributed to Flaubert himself.
Language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.
What an awful thing life is, isn’t it? It’s like soup with lots of hairs floating on the surface. You have to eat it nonetheless.
I am like a cigar: you have to suck on the end to get me going.
Tears are to the heart what water is to a fish.
I am only a literary lizard basking the day away beneath the great sun of Beauty. That’s all.