138

"Why not?"

"Because the truth is too simple for intellectuals."

p 20

"... you write that you put yourself into a state of grace."

... I didn't believe in it then - the idea of being without sin - but I did believe in a sort of vacuum. To me, 'state of grace' means being free to receive any message. To be completely receptive, you must be full of emptiness."

p 22

Pierre Grossou by Balzac Vol 10

p 360 To invent in any kind is to die by inches, to copy is to live.

p 361 By the time he was 37 Fougéres had manufactured... about 200 pictures all perfectly unknown but by which he had gained with practice that satisfactory handling, that pitch

139

of dexterity at which an artist shrugs his shoulders, and which is dear to the Philistine. trans. Ellen Marriage 1901

Cousin Pons by Balzac - Vol 22 1846-47

p 13 ... Pons was accustomed to the formulas and facial contortions which do duty for feeling in the world; he used compliments as small change; and as far as others were concerned, he was satisfied with the labels they bore, and never plunged a too-curious hand into the sack.

Very soon the cold which old age spreads about itself began to set in; the communicable cold which sensibly lowers the social temperature, especially if the old man is ugly and poor. Old and ugly and poor - is not this to be thrice old?

p 198 (Description of Fraisier, the lawyer)

In his white tie, yellow gloves, and new wig, redolent of eau de Portugal, he