Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubertwas an influential French novelist who was perhaps the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary, for his Correspondence, and for his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth12 December 1821
CityRouen, France
CountryFrance
A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.
Sometimes I think I'm liquefying like an old Camembert.
There are two infinities that confuse me: the one in my soul devours me; the one around me will crush me
I go from exasperation to a state of collapse, then I recover and go from prostration to Fury, so that my average state is one of being annoyed.
A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.
Talent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation.
Boredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart.
We swung between madness and suicide ... it was beautiful!
We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a naïve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep
There comes a point at which you stop writing and think all the more
Iced champagne was served, and the feel of the cold wine in her mouth gave Emma a shiver that ran over her from head to toe.
I have dreamed much and have done very little.
The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror
The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.