Important Quotations Explained
1. Maman
died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from
the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.”
That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.
2. She
said, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you
go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the
church.” She was right. There was no way out.
3. A
minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean
anything but that I didn't think so.
4. I
said that people never change their lives, that in any case one
life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with
mine here at all.
5. As
if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the
first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself
to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like
myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and
that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me
to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd
of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with
cries of hate.
