Status Updates From La Force de l'âge

“by describing death, not only as a common link between the individual and mankind, but also as the major peril of loneliness and separation. Thus each book thenceforth impelled me towards its successor, for the more I saw of the world, the more I realized that it was brimming over with all I could ever hope to experience, understand, and put into words.”

“fear never stopped my taking any particular course…I did not even fear the prospect of death…it was bound to arise in my life at a certain moment. It would be the final point of life for me, true, but still a part of life; on the occasions when I believed myself face to face with it, I surrendered myself calmly to this lively adventure, never giving thought to the void that yawned for me on the farther side.

“All Paris was incarnate in me, and I recognized myself in every face I saw. I was stunned by the sheer intensity of my own presence: through some miraculous communal intimacy it extended my awareness till it encompassed every other living soul. I seemed to have grown wings; henceforth I would soar above the narrow confines of my personal life and float in the empyrean that was all mankind.”