The Red Notebook Quotes

“If there was one thing that defined adolescence it was hysterical laughter. You never laughed like that again. In adolescence the brutal realisation that the world and life were completely absurd made you laugh until you couldn’t catch your breath, whereas in later life it would only result in a weary sigh.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“How many things do we feel obliged to do for the sake of it, or for appearances, or because we are trained to do them, but which weigh us down and don’t in fact achieve anything?”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn’t happened? We talk of ‘regrets’ about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“That was exactly what Tabucchi was suggesting with his title ("La Nostalgie du Possible") --that we can pass right by something very important: love, a job, moving to another city or another country. Or another life. 'Pass by' and at the same time be 'so close' that sometimes, while in that state of melancholy that is akin to hypnosis, we can, in spite of everything, manage to grab little fragments of what might have been. Like catching snatches of a far-off radio frequency. The message is obscure, yet by listening carefully you can still catch snippets of the soundtrack of the life that never was. You hear sentences that were never actually said, you hear footsteps echoing in places you've never been to, you can make out the surf on a beach whose sand you have never touched. You hear the laughter and loving words of a woman though nothing ever happened between you. The idea of an affiar with her had crossed your mind. Perhaps she would have liked that --probably, in fact-- but nothing every happened. For some unknown reason, we never gave in to the exquisite vertigo that you feel when you move those few centimeters towards the face of the other for the first kiss.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“There, it was over. How was it so easy to disappear from someone else’s life? Perhaps it was with the same ease that you enter it. A chance meeting, a few words exchanged, and a relationship begins. A chance falling out, a few words exchanged and that same relationship is over.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“A quote from Sacha Guitry came to mind: 'Watching someone sleep is like reading a letter that is not addressed to you.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“That was exactly what Tabucchi was suggesting in his title – that we can pass right by something very important: love, a job, moving to another city or another country. Or another life. ‘Pass by’ and at the same time be ‘so close’ that sometimes, while in that state of melancholy that is akin to hypnosis, we can, in spite of everything, manage to grab little fragments of what might have been. Like catching snatches of a far-off radio frequency. The message is obscure, yet by listening carefully you can still catch snippets of the soundtrack of the life that never was. You hear sentences that were never actually said, you hear footsteps echoing in places you’ve never been to, you can make out the surf on a beach whose sand you have never touched. You hear the laughter and loving words of a woman though nothing ever happened between you. The idea of an affair with her had crossed your mind. Perhaps she would have liked that – probably in fact – but nothing ever happened. For some unknown reason, we never gave in to the exquisite vertigo that you feel when you move those few centimetres towards the face of the other for the first kiss. We passed by, we passed so close that something of the experience remains.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“To quote Patrick Modiano, whom you you seem to like, in Villa Triste, 'There are mysterious beings, always the same, who watch over us at each crossroads in our lives.' Let's just say that, unintentionally, I have been one of those beings.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“It's the story of a bookseller who finds a handbag in the street one day, takes it home with him, empties out its contents and decides to look for the woman who owns it. He succeeds but when he finds her, he runs off like an idiot.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“What I really need is a friend just like me; I'm sure I'd be my own best friend.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Do great things, Laure, be happy, or at least do your best to be. Life is fragile”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“What was she like, this Laure who enjoyed having lunch in the garden, was frightened of red ants, dremt she was making love to her pet which had been transformed into a man, and had a signed Patrick Modiano?

She was an enigma. It was like looking at someone through a fogged-up window. her face was like one encountered in a dream, whose features disolve as soon as you try to recall them.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Une existence entiere a lire l'aurait comble, elle ne lui avait pas ete donnee. Il aurait fallu choisir sa voie plus tot, savoir ce que l'on veut faire apres le baccalaureat. Avoir un projet de vie.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“remember sticking all kinds of things in them: tickets from films and plays I had been to see, leaves I had picked up on walks and bills for meals I had eaten on café terraces. They were a record of what I had done when, down to the nearest minute. I think I held on to them as ‘evidence’ of some kind. They helped me to find my place in the world and, in a broader sense, to prove to myself that I really existed. I suppose I must have decided at some point that I no longer needed to do that, because I gave up writing a diary, stopped telling the story of my life and tried to just live it instead.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Sometimes, using a pseudonym, he would write a review himself on fnac.com or amazon.com, praising himself and hailing the great talent of Frederic Pichier.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Existen amores efímeros, destinados a morir desde el comienzo y en un plazo muy breve, aunque en general no se cobre conciencia de ello hasta el momento en que se acaban”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“He even made sure not to shelve authors who did not get on next to each other. So he would never put Céline next to Sartre, or Houellebecq next to Robbe-Grillet.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Yes … we must find her to give her back her bag … that will complete the story,’ Modiano mused.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“There is little but the sublime to help us through the ordinary in life. Alain (Émile-Auguste Chartier)”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“به محض اینکه قدم به داخل گذاشت،حس برگشتن به خانه، بعد از یک مدت طولانی تمام وجودش را در برگرفت ، زمانی که به نظر می رسد گرد و خاک روی همه چیز را پوشانده ، چیز هایی که آنچنان به آن ها عادت کرده بودی که انگار اصلا به چشمت نمی آمدند. وقتی بعد از یک مدت طولانی بر می گردی ناگهان همه چیز درخشان تر به نظر می رسد، مثل یک عکس که رنگ و نور اصلی ش برگشته.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“He drank some more wine, feeling he was about to commit a forbidden act. A transgression. For a man should never go through a woman's handbag. . . ”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“There's nothing worse than being bored with a boring man.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“He drank some more wine, feeling he was about to commit a forbidden act. A transgression. For a man should never go through a woman's handbag-even the most remote tribe would adhere to that ancestral rule.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“There, it was over. How was it so easy to disappear from someone else's life? Perhaps it was with the same ease that you enter it. A chance meeting, a few words exchanged, and a relationship begins. A chance falling out, a few words exchanged and that same relationship is over.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“If there was one thing thing that defined adolescence it was hysterical laughter. You never laughed like that again. In adolescence the brutal realisation that the world and life were completely absurd made you laugh until you couldn't catch your breath, whereas in later life it would only result in a weary sight.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Chloe sighted, then continued, 'She's very attached to the past - the mirror is ancient, a famili heirloom; perhaps it was her grandmother's. And she uses an unusual perfume - no one wears Habanita any more - she writes weird things in her notebook, she has a book signed by an author you admire...' Then she concluded with an ironic smile, 'She's the woman for you.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Laurent was fascinated by her reflections which followed on one from the other, random, touching, zany, sensual.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Man ist an etwas wichtigem vorbeigegangen. An einer Liebe, einem Beruf, einem Umzug in eine andere Stadt, ein anderes Land. An einem anderen Leben. Man ist daran vorbeigegangen aber doch so nah, dass man manchmal, in melancholischen, fast hypnotischen Momenten, trotzdem Teile dieses Moeglichen erfassen kann.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“there was one thing that defined adolescence it was hysterical laughter. You never laughed like that again. In adolescence the brutal realisation that the world and life were completely absurd made you laugh until you couldn’t catch your breath, whereas in later life it would only result in a weary sigh.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“A quote from Sacha Guitry came to mind: ‘Watching someone sleep is like reading a letter that’s not addressed to you.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook