Bean

“In our world, that's the way you live your grown-up life: you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult, the way it's been put together it is wobbly, ephemeral, and fragile, it cloaks despair and, when you're alone in front of the mirror, it tells you the lies you need to believe.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“... they have never seen you ... I would recognize you anywhere. ”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people - people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behavior, just as money frees people from work.”
― George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London

“Papa is just a kid who's playing the dead serious grown-up.”
― Muriel Barbery