Quote of the day

This is the preface to the 1952 edition of Journey to the end of the night:

Hey, they're putting Journey on the rails again.

What a feeling it gives me.

A lot of things have happened in 14 years...

If I weren't under so much pressure, forced to earn my living, I can tell you right now, I'd suppress the whole thing, I wouldn't let a single line through.

Everything gets taken the wrong way. I've been the cause of too much evil.

Just think of all the deaths, the hatreds around me ... the treachery ... the sewer it adds up to ... the monsters ...

Oh, you've got to be blind and death!

You'll say: but it's not Journey! It's your crimes that are killing you, Journey has nothing to do with it. You yourself have been your ruin! your Bagatelles! your abominable lingo! your imaging, clowning villainy! The law's clutching you, strangling you? Hell, what are you complaining about? You jerk!

Oh, many thanks! Many thanks! I'm raging! Fuming! Panting! With hatred! Hypocrites! Fuckheads! You can't fool me! It's for Journey that they're after me! Under the axe I'll bellow it! between 'them' and me it's to the finish! to the guts! too foul to talk about ... pissed with Mystique! What a business!

If I weren't under pressure, forced to earn my living, I'm telling you right now, I'd suppress the whole lot. A homage I paid to jackals! ... That's right! ... A free gift ... A tip ... I threw my luck away ... in '36 ... gave it to the executioners' wives! the prosecutors! the undertakers! One two three admirable books to cut my throat with! And listen to my groans! I made them a present! I was charitable, that's all!

The world of intentions amuses me ... used to amuse me ... not any more.

If I weren't under such pressure, such duress, I'd suppress the whole lot ... especially Journey ... Of all my books it's the only really vicious one ... That's right ... The heart of my sensibility ...

It'll all start over again. The Sarabbath! You'll hear a whistling from up above, from far away, from places without names: words, orders ...

You'll get an eyeful of their machinations! ... You'll come and tell me about it ...

Oh, don't imagine that I'm playing! I've stopped playing ... I've even stopped being amiable.

If I weren't under duress, as though standing with my back to something ... I'd suppress the whole lot.