treeghosts

“Is that what we come into the world for, to hurry to an office, and work hour after hour till night, then hurry home and dine and go to a theatre? Is that how I must spend my youth? Youth lasts so short a time, Bateman. And when I am old, what have I to look forward to? To hurry from my home in the morning to my office and work hour after hour after hour till night, and then hurry home again, and dine and go to a theatre? That may be worthwhile if you make a fortune; I don’t know, it depends on your nature; but if you don’t, is it worth while then? I want to make more out of my life than that, Bateman.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Rain and Other South Sea Stories

“What tragedies, what passions, what crimes had surrounded the idyll of Raoul and his sweet and charming Christine!... What had become of that wonderful, mysterious artist of whom the world was never, never to hear again?...”
― Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera

“We are full of words whose true meaning we haven't been taught, and one of those words is suffering. Another is the word death. We don't know what they mean, but we use them, and this is a mystery.”
― Alessandro Baricco, Emmaus

“None will ever be a true Parisian who has not learned to wear a mask of gaiety over his sorrows and one of sadness, boredom, or indifference over his inward joy.”
― Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera