Muriel Barbery

"Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty."

"I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language."

"...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people."

"Clara looked at Maria and tried to understand what she must do so that Maria would be able to see her. But the little French girl cast all around her the bronze of infinite solitude."

"Sashimi is velvet dust, verging on silk, or a bit of both, and the extraordinary alchemy of its gossamer essence allows it to preserve a milky density unknown even by clouds... my cheeks recalled the effects of its profound caress."

"If you want to heal Heal others And smile or weep At this happy reversal of fate"

"To the rich, therefore, falls the burden of Beauty. And if they cannot assume it, then they deserve to die."

"There are days when I feel I have been able to grasp all there is to know in one single gaze, as if invisible branches suddenly spring out of nowhere, weaving together all the disparate strands of my reading--and then suddenly the meaning escapes, the essence evaporates, and no matter how often I reread the same lines, they seem to flee ever further with each subsequent reading..."

"...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people."