“I've done a Russian movie," Claire said. "Thank God they're still stuck in realism, Zola-crazy. Subtitling their films is like captioning a child's picture book.”
Source: Desperate Characters
“It is not the experience which leads him to the problem, but the problem which leads him to the experience. That is also Zola’s method and procedure. He begins a new novel as the German professor of the anecdote begins a new course of lectures, in order to obtain more exact information about a subject with which he is unfamiliar.”
Source: The Social History of Art: Volume 4: Naturalism, Impressionism, The Film Age
“I spite of his scientific attitude he is a romantic, and indeed much more whole-heartedly so than the other less radical naturalists of his day. His one-sided, undialectical rationalization and schematization of reality is already boldly and ruthlesslyromantic. And the symbols to which he reduces motley, many-sided, contradictory life— the city, the machine, alcohol, prostitution, the department store, the markethall, the stock exchange, the theatre, etc.—are all the more the visions of a romantic systematizer, who sees allegories instead of concrete individual phenomena everywhere.”
Source: The Social History of Art: Volume 4: Naturalism, Impressionism, The Film Age
“Brotherhood is a VERB!”
Source: Brotherhood is a VERB!: Not Just Another Damn Leadership Book
“Pour moi, la rue de Bruxelles est demeurée tout entière dans le petit hôtel de Zola, où il recevait gentiment ses amis. Il était gourmand, il zézayait et, d'un air futé, disait de la bécasse flambée : «La fair (la chair) est quelconque, mais la faufe (la sauce) est bonne. » Sa maison était décorée de blocs de pierre sans intérêt, rapportés d'Italie, et qui excitaient l'hilarité de Goncourt, de quleques belles toiles de Manet, Cézanne et autres, et de meubles riches, qu'il croyait anciens, mais que le même Goncourt affirmait rafistolés. Son goût, sauf en peinture, était moyenâgeux et incompétent. Mon père disait : «Il aime les stalles et les cathèdres. »”
Source: Paris Vécu - 1ère série: Rive Droite
“Elle aimait ce garçon de cette tendresse bavarde que les vieilles femmes ont pour les gens qui viennent de leur pays, apportant avec eux des souvenirs du passé.”
Source: Thérèse Raquin
“Parfois, ils se forçaient à l’espérance, ils cherchaient à reprendre les rêves brûlants d’autrefois, et ils demeuraient tout étonnés, en voyant que leur imagination était vide.”
Source: Thérèse Raquin
“Au fond une pensée unique les rongeait : ils s’irritaient contre leur crime, ils se désespéraient d’avoir a jamais troublé leur vie.”
Source: Thérèse Raquin
“The combination of low empathizing and high systemizing abilities might mean a rapid ascent of a man to the top of the social pile. This is because men in every culture compete against each other for success in social rank. As we mentioned above, a male’s position in the social dominance hierarchy in most species directly affects his fertility. For example, in some species it is only the alpha male that gets to reproduce. And even today, among modern humans, men with higher social status tend to have more children and more wives, compared with men of lower social status. To achieve social dominance, males use physical force, or the threat of force, or other kinds of threat (for example, withdrawing support). That is why, in most species, males are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than females.”
Source: The Essential Difference: Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism
“It is said that the boldest thing you can do is think for yourself, but I believe that it is bolder still to act on those thoughts and ideas despite certain criticism and objections. To be true to yourself—to look straight into your own eyes reflected in the mirror and be loyal to the person you see—is to be bold indeed.”
Source: Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year