1. p.6
a. I could change your life.
b. A lot of women would like to be in your shoe.
c. You’re young now, but what will become of you in a few years’ time? You
need to think about making a longer-term investment.
d. I’m married, but my wife… (This opening line can have various endings: … is
ill, … has threatened to commit suicide if I leave her.
e. You’re a princess and deserve to be treated like one. I didn’t know it until
now, but I’ve been waiting for you. I don’t believe in coincidences and I really
think we ought to give this relationship a chance.
p.8
Who would dare destroy a billion-dollar industry involving advertisements, the sale of
useless objects, the invention of entirely unnecessary new trends, and the creation of
identical face creams all bearing different labels?
p.26
She knows people who have achieved stardom on the stage and, contrary to her
expectations, they’re not at peace with themselves; they’re insecure, full of doubts,
unhappy as soon as they come offstage. They want to be actors so as not to have to be
themselves, and they live in fear of making the one false step that could end their
career.
She knows three things:
a. that men are less treacherous than women
b. that they never notice what a woman is wearing because they’re always
mentally undressing her
c. that as long as you’ve got breasts, thighs, buttocks, and belly in good trim, you
can conquer the world
p.41
Would it be acceptable to destroy a universe in the name of greater love?
p.47 see pdf files
p.53
Finally, the script is almost ready. At this point, the producer draws up a list of
demands: the removal of any political references that might upset a more conservative
audience; more kissing, because women like that kind of thing, a story with a
beginning, a middle, and an edn, and a hero who moves everyone to tears with his
self-sacrifice and devotion; and one character who loses a loved one at the start of the
film and finds him or her again at the end. In fact, most film scripts can be summed up
very briefly as: Man loves woman. Man loses woman. Man gets woman back. Ninety
percent of all films are variations on that same theme.
p.62
This was an ambitious project, but she was sure she would achieve it if only through
sheer doggedness. To do this she needed to purify her soul, and so she turned to the
four forces that had always guided her: love, death, power and time. We must love
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2. because we are loved by god. We must be conscious of death if we are to have a
proper understanding of life. We must struggle in order to grow, but without falling
into the trap of the power we gain through that struggle, because we know that such
power is worthless. Finally, we must accept that our eternal soul is, at this moment,
caught in the web of time with all its opportunities and its limitations.
p.93
because we so rarely travel together. Besides, you know what I think a bout the world
we live in: that we’re being suffocated by lies, encouraged to put our faith in science
rather in spiritual values and to feed our souls with the things society tells us are
important, when, in reality, we’re slowly dying because we know what’s going on
around us, that we’re being forced to do things we never planned to do, and yet even
so, are incapable of giving it all up and devoting our days and nights to true
happiness, to family, nature, love. And why is that? Because we feel obliged to finish
what we started, so that we can achieve the financial stability we need in order to
enjoy the rest of our lives devoting ourselves to each other because we’re responsible
people. I know you sometimes think I work too much but it’s not true. I’m building
our future and soon we’ll be free to dream and to live out our dreams.
p.99
Don’t assume they are all fans. Since time immemorial, men have believed that being
close to something unattainable and mysterious can bring blessings. That’s why
people make pilgrimages to visit gurus and sacred places.
p.100
Too roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other, as just a fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day
Yet knowing how way lead on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two reads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference
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3. p.137
Experience has taught me that people only give value to a thing if they have, at some
point, been uncertain as to whether or not they’ll get it.
p.155
The celebrity syndrome. It can destroy careers, marriages and Christian values, and
can blind both the wise and the ignorant. A few examples. Great scientists who, on
being given an important prize, abandon the research that might have helped
humanity and decide instead to live off lectures that feed both their ego and their bank
balance. The Indian in the amazon jungle who, on being taken up by a famous singer,
decides that he’s being exploited for his poverty. The campaigner for justice who
works hard defending the rights of the less fortunate, decides to run for public office,
wins the election, and subsequently considers himself above the law, until he’s
discovered one day in a motel room with a prostitute paid for by the taxpayer.
p.199
She was Ewa’s only Russian-speaking friend. She was alone. She had marital
problems, according to the psychologist employed by the surveillance agency, she
was ideally placed to obtain the desired information. He knew that Ewa hadn’t yet
adapted to her new life, and what could be more natural than to share her intimate
thoughts with another woman in similar circumstances, not in order to find a solution,
but simply to unburden her soul.
p.229
We all carry around in us a great destructive power. There are many reasons for this:
wanting to put the world to rights, to get revenge for something that happened in your
childhood, to vent one’s suppressed hatred of society, but whether consciously or
unconsciously , everyone has felt that desire at one time or another, even if only in
childhood.
p.242
He has finally understood that you cannot search out happiness at any price. Life has
given him all it could, and he’s beginning to see just how generous life has always
been to him. Now and for the rest of his days, he will devote himself to disinterring
the treasures hidden in his suffering and enjoying each second of happiness as if it
were his last.
p.243
The Superclass tries to promote its values. Ordinary people complain of divine
injustice, they envy power, and it pains them to see others having fun. They don’t
understand that no one is having fun, that everyone is worried and insecure, and that
what the jewels, cars and fat wallets conceal is a huge inferiority complex.
p.248
Carry on, even if you’re not sure now of what you’re doing. God moves in mysterious
ways and sometimes the path only reveals itself once you start walking it.
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