Alex

My sincere thanks to – in alphabetical order – Louis Aragon, Marcel Aymé, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bost, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Cynthia Fleury, John Harvey, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Boris Pasternak, Maurice Pons, Marcel Proust and others for borrowing slightly here and there.

People say that the first minutes of any encounter encompass the whole relationship in miniature.

The golden boy leafing through the file, the tramp asking the questions and the dwarf at the back of the classroom with his colouring book.”

Vasseur is the kind of guy who says something lewd and looks around for support. It’s the sort of thing you expect from ageing Lotharios, the dickless wonders, the perverts, but in fact it’s all too common among men of all sorts.

“When a witness asks what proof we have it means he’s not disputing our conclusion,” Camille says. “He’s just trying to wriggle out of it.”

young girls and mass murderers are tender-hearted creatures.

It’s impossible not to cry when you are face-to-face with yourself.

Life always catches up with us – no-one ever escapes.

Camille spotted this too. The copies of I promessi sposi, L’amante senza fissa dimora, Il nome della rosa, and Alice in Wonderland, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Portrait of a Lady and Emma are all in the original language.

it’s just when you’ve given up hope that the signal comes that may save you