The Library of Unrequited Love - Sophie Divry

« Nobody sees me, that’s my problem. »

« Dewey is the Mendeleev of librarians. »

« To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world. »

« Nowadays I don’t go on holiday, not even weekends, I can’t stand leisure. »

« Oh, don’t think I’m complaining. I like my job. Well, O.K., I confess, when  began studying, I did’nt mean to become a librarian. I wanted to be a secondary school teacher, but I failed the teaching diploma. »

« So men, no, that’s all over. Love, for me, is something I find in books. I read a lot, it’s comforting. You’re never alone if you live surrounded by books. They lift my spirit. The main thing is to be uplifted. »

« To appeal to me, a man can ve shorter than me or taller, richer or poorer, older or younger, nothing’s an obstacle, I’m open-minded, you see. But he has to be more intelligent. An he has to be clean-shaven, no stubble, I hate scruffy people. »

« Then I realized it was the back of his neck that had captivated me, right from the start. Because is there anything more fascinating about a person than a beautiful neck seen from behind ? The back of the neck is a promise, summing up the whole person through their most intimate feature. Yes, intimate. It’s the part of your body you can never see yourself. »

« Well, it’s not really physical, no, he’s very polite, and I like that side of him too, but, well, he just seems…very intelligent. That’s it. And exactly the kind of intelligence that I appreciate. Someone who spends his time reading books, taking notes from books, selecting books, and all that so as to write another book, it’s really admirable. »

« That’s what sofas are for : sit down, drink a cup of tea, talk about literature. »

« Well, isn’t an American a European who missed the boat home ? »

« I like men who are more intelligent than me, but the idea that they might think me stupid paralyses me. »

« What kind of literature is going to be produced in a society where there are no wars or epidemics or revolutions ? I’ll tell you what : badly written novels about nice girls and boys falling in love, who make each other suffer without meaning to, and spend all their time crying and saying they’re sorry. Ridiculous. »

« People apologize too much, everyone’s afraid of giving offence and it leads to literature being written for babies. »

« I’m one of those who think that it ought to be a sign of recognition for a book to be bought by a library. A distinction. »

« Because culture isn’t the same as pleasure. Culture calls for a permanent effort by the individual to escape the vile condition of an under-civilized primate. »

« Not speaking when you’re in a group is unnatural, but it’s part of learning to be civilized. »

« People can be lonely, terribly lonely. Reading’s an excuse. A pretext. What they’re looking for here is something to hang on to. If you don’t believe me, how come you don’t even want to go home at night ? Who would come and shut themselves up in this basement if they were of sound mind ? Yes, go on, admit it, you’re a bit borderline yourself. Well, anyway, libraries do attract mad people. Especially in summer. Of course, if you closed the libraries during the summer holidays, you wouldn’t see them. No more lunatics, poor people, children on their own, students who’ve failed their exams, no more little old chaps, no more culture and no more humanity. »

« Nothing is sadder than an empty library. »

« But really that’s all I do want, to be asked a question, to be disturbed, just a bit. »

« Book and reader, if they meet up at the right moment in a person’s life, it can make sparks fly, set you alight, change your life. It can, I promise you. »

« When your family’s abandoned you, you haven’t got any friends, you think you’re rubbish, worthless, nothing, books are a great help. Just think about it : what can make human beings suffer more than awarenes of their limits ? I don’t mean fear of death, I mean our suffering at realizing our intelligence is limited. But when we go into a library and look at all those bookcases stretching into the distance, what descends on our soul, if not grace ? Spiritually, we cana t last fill the terrible emptiness that makes us just worms creeping on this earth. Those endless bookshelves reflect back to us an ideal image, the image of the full range of the human mind. »

« In fact, the library is the place where the greatest solidarity between humans takes place. »

« Life isn’t pre-programmed like a washing machine. »

« Yes, like Mummy, the library gives you a magic kiss and everything’s better. »

« On the contrary, you need knidness, more kindness, always more kindness. I see them come in here, the young kids from technical college, apprentices, the children who need study support. »

« When you’ve always been useless at school, thousands of books all gathered together in one place are scary, humiliating, for a man they’re castrating – well, that’s by the by. »

« But writing is a sexual activity. »

The Library of Unrequited Love – Sophie Divry