The doctor used to tell me that every person about to die becomes a music box playing the melody that best describes his life, his character, and his hopes. For some, it's a popular waltz; for others, a march. Patrick Modiano More Quotes by Patrick Modiano More Quotes From Patrick Modiano But I am a patient man. I can wait for hours in the rain Patrick Modiano waitingrainmen A man without scenery is completely disarmed. Patrick Modiano sceneryclimbingmen When you really love someone, you must accept their part of mystery. And that’s why you love them. Patrick Modiano love-someonemysteryaccepting For a long time - and this particular time with greater force than usual - summer has been a season that gives me a sense of emptiness and absence, and takes me back to the past. Patrick Modiano summerlongpast Nice is a city of ghosts and specters, but I hope not to become one of them right away. Patrick Modiano nicecitiesghost My wife's a lot younger than me ... thirty years difference . . . You should never marry a woman a lot younger than you ... Never. Patrick Modiano differenceswifeyears On winning Literature Nobel Prize: I was actually in the street. Yes, I was in the street. It was my daughter who notified me. Patrick Modiano daughtermotherwinning I just have two daughters and a grandson. So not a big family. Patrick Modiano daughtermothertwo As a writer, one is always a little blind to what one writes. Patrick Modiano writerlittlealwaysblind Writing is a strange and solitary activity. There are dispiriting times when you start working on the first few pages of a novel. Every day, you have the feeling you are on the wrong track. This creates a strong urge to go back and follow a different path. It is important not to give in to this urge but to keep going. Patrick Modiano dayyoukeep-goingpath A novelist's lack of awareness of and critical distance to his own body of work is due to a phenomenon that I have noticed in myself and many others: as soon as it is written, every new book erases the last one, leaving me with the impression that I have forgotten it. Patrick Modiano myselfmeworkbook I've always had the wish, the nostalgia to be able to write detective novels. At heart, the principal themes of detective novels are close to the things that obsess me: disappearance, the problems of identity, amnesia, the return to an enigmatic past. Patrick Modiano problemsmeheartpast I think I became a writer because I didn't know of anything else to do. Maybe some incident from my childhood influenced me. Patrick Modiano thinkknowmechildhood I quickly realised that it is difficult to get started when writing a novel. You have this dream of what you want to create, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump in because the water is too cold. Patrick Modiano youswimmingwalkingwater When I was younger, I just put off the writing until later in the day, but now I write early every morning to get it done. I can only write for a few hours at a time; after that, my attention fades. Patrick Modiano daytimemorningattention Encourage aspiring writers to continue writing when things are going against them, when it feels hard. Explain the typical obstacles that occur, and encourage and reassure them to continue, never to give up. Patrick Modiano neverthingsobstacleswriting Recently, I looked back at my first manuscripts and was struck by the lack of space, of breath. That's exactly how it felt, back then... like I was suffocating. Patrick Modiano howbacklikespace For a long time, I've had a recurring dream - I dream I don't have to write any more, that I'm free. I'm not free, alas; I'm still clearing the same terrain, with the impression that it's never finished. Patrick Modiano neverlong-timetimelong I always have the impression that I write the same book. Patrick Modiano writealwaysimpressionbook I write in the most classical French because this form is necessary for my novels: to translate the murky, floating, unsettling atmosphere I wanted them to have, I had to discipline it into the clearest, most traditional language possible. Patrick Modiano possiblefloatingdisciplinelanguage
