Françoise Sagan

Writing takes a pen, a sheet of paper and, to start with, just the shadow of an idea.

Curiosity is the beginning of wisdom.

Nothing becomes some women more than the prick of ambition. Love, on the contrary, may make them very dull.

A Strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me but now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.

For this was the round of love: fear which leads on desire, tenderness and fury, and that brutal anguish which triumphantly follows pleasure.

What we love we may also despise.