Александрийский квартет

Life is more complicated than we think, yet far simpler than anyone dares to imagine.

But now, then, tell me — which of us was the greater liar? I cheated you, you cheated yourself.

All of a sudden there seemed nowhere in particular to go. Every impulse, every desire had faltered and faded out.

He proceeded slowly, for to register an idea in a Moslem mind is like trying to paint a wall: one must wait for the first coat to dry (the first idea) before applying a second.

He proceeded slowly, for to register an idea in a Moslem mind is like trying to paint a wall: one must wait for the first coat to dry (the first idea) before applying a second.

They were past speech and reflection — the diminished figures of an unforgotten, unregretted past, infinitely dear now because irrecoverable.

She had too great a tendency to believe what people said.

‘In maters of business, a diplomat has no friends’ he said stiffly, feeling that he spoke in the very accents of Pontius Pilate.

Heartbeats are mercifully inaudible to anyone but oneself.

I just don’t see what D. H. Lawrence has to offer a pasha with seventeen wives, though I believe I know which one of them is happiest….

‘We say that once Lucifer had good intentions, a change of heart. He decided to perform a good act for a change — just one. So hell was born on earth, and they named it Soviet Russia.’

And then, like all the inexperienced lovers since the world began, he was not content to let things be; he must explore and evaluate them in his conscious mind.

Lovers can find nothing to say to each other that has not been said and unsaid a thousand times over. Kisses were invented to translate such nothings into wounds.

At first ...we seek to supplement the emptiness of our individuality through love, and for a brief moment enjoy the illusion of completeness. But it is only an illusion. For
this strange creature, which we thought would join us to the body of the world, succeeds at last in separating us most thoroughly from it. Love joins and then divides. How else would we be growing?

The Mediterranean is an absurdly small sea; the length and
greatness of its history makes us dream it larger than it is.

A diary is the last place to go if you wish to seek the truth about a person.

Somewhere in the heart of experience there is an order and a coherence which we might surprise if we were attentive enough, loving enough, or patient enough. Will there be time?

To the Cartesian proposition: “I think, therefore I am”, he opposed his own, which must have gone something like this: “I imagine, therefore I belong and am free”.

Yet one touch of humour would have saved him from such dreadful comprehensive suffering. It is easy to criticise, I know. I know.

Работа — единственная приемлемая для художника форма общения с современниками, поскольку истинных друзей он ищет среди мертвых либо нерожденных. Потому художник и политика суть вещи несовместимые, это не его дело.