Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person onlyâ€� A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“Books aren’t eggs, you know. Simply because a book has aged a bit doesn’t mean it’s gone bad.â€� There was now an edge to Monsieur Perdu’s voice too. “What is wrong with old? Age isn’t a disease. We all grow old, even books. But are you, is anyone, worth less, or less important, because they’ve been around for longer?”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“Whenever Monsieur Perdu looked at a book, he did not see it purely in terms of a story, retail price and an essential balm for the soul; he saw freedom on wings of paper.”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“How strange, thought Perdu, that one laugh can wipe away so much hardship and suffering. A single laugh. And the years flow together and…away.”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“Loving or not loving should be like coffee or tea; people should be allowed to decide. How else are we to get over all our dead and the women we've lost?" Cunco whispered dejectedly.
"Maybe we shouldn't."
"You think so? Not get over it. but...then? What then? What task do the departed want us to do?"
That was the question that Jean Perdu had been unable to answer for all these years.
Until now. Now he knew.
"To carry them within us—that is our task. We carry them all inside us, all our dead and shattered loves. Only they make us whole. If we begin to forget or cast aside those we've lost, then...then we are no longer present either. "
Jean looked at the Allier River, glittering in the moonlight.
"All the love, all the dead, all the people we've known. They are the rivers that feed our sea of souls. If we refuse to remember them, that sea will dry up too."
He felt an overwhelming inner thirst to seize life with both hands before time sped past even faster. He didn't want to die of thirst, he wanted to be as wide and free as the sea—full and deep. He longed for friends. He wanted to love. He wanted to feel the marks that Manon had left inside him. He still wanted to feel her coursing through him, mingling with him. Manon had changed him forever—why deny it? That was how he had become the man whom Catherine had allowed to approach her.
Jean Perdu suddenly realized that Catherine could never taken Mann's place. She took her own place. No worse, no better, simply different.
He longed to show Catherine the full expanse of his sea!”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“«Lo sai che fra la fine e il nuovo inizio c’Ã� un mondo di mezzo? È il tempo ferito, Jean Perdu. È una palude dove si raccolgono sogni, paure e intenzioni perdute. I passi in questo tempo si fanno più pesanti. Non sottovalutare questa stazione di passaggio fra la fine e il nuovo inizio, Jeanno. Datti tempo. A volte le soglie sono così grandi che non si possono superare con un passo solo».”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“«Mi piacciono le parole che sono già una descrizione di se stesse», bisbigliò Perdu. Aveva gli occhi chiusi. «‘Brezza notturnaâ€�. ‘Ostinazioneâ€�. In questa parola vedo una bambina che lotta contro tutto ciò che non vuole. Brava, magra e leggera. La piccola cavallerizza Ostinazione contro le forze oscure della ragione.» «Ci sono parole con cui ci si ferisce», intervenne Vitale. «Sono come lamette nell’orecchio e sulla lingua. ‘Disciplinaâ€�. ‘Addestramentoâ€�. Oppure ‘raziocinioâ€�.» «Raziocinio occupa così tanto la bocca che impedisce ad altre parole di entrarci»”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“Also, there is a dedicated community of people in the world who will always be able to connect with each other across all languages, boundaries, and religions. It is the “Readersâ€� Club.â€� People who read a lot, starting at a very young age, are people who were raised by books. They have learned about forms of love and hate, kindness, respect, and ideas that are different from their own. They experience the world as something infinitely larger than before. They enjoy the indescribable feeling of having found their true selves. We readers are book people, and Jean Perdu [the protagonist] is one of us. We are all traveling on an invisible literary riverboat, one that carries us down the stream of life. It shapes, holds, and comforts us. At”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop