(…) il fallait séparer nos souffles, s’écarter, s’espacer, se lever, se dédoubler, et c’est toujours autant de perdu. Quand on a deux corps, il vient des moments où l’on est à moitié.- Est-ce que je...

I found Americans arrogant, Germans rude, Britishers selfish, Frenchs desperate, Chinese worried and my own nation stupid.

Adieu, mon cher vieux. Relis et rebûche ton conte. Laisse-le reposer et reprends-le, les livres ne se font pas comme les enfants, mais comme les pyramides, avec un dessin prémédité, et en apportant des grands...

I don’t think it’s by accident that I was first attracted to translating two French women poets.

One of the many advantages of having a boyfriend who is half French is that his culinary repertoire extends beyond mac and cheese. Plus, there’s the kissing.

D’une complexion farouche et bavarde, ayant le désir de ne voir personne et le besoin de parler à quelqu’un, il se tirait d’affaire en se parlant à lui-même. Quiconque a vécu solitaire sait à quel...

Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything.

Tous mes anciens amours vont me revenir.’- All my old loves will be returned to me

I have not been able to discover whether there exists a precise French equivalent for the common Anglo-American expression ‘killing time.’ It’s a very crass and breezy expression, when you ponder it for a moment,...

Don’t just stand there with your Eiffel Tower smile. Tell me you love me, and tell me in French.

Who buys French cars? Not me.

Nous disons bien que l’heure de la mort est incertaine, mais quand nous disons cela, nous nous représentons cette heure comme située dans un espace vague et lointain, nous ne pensons pas qu’elle ait un...

Ça va. Nap time is over.

The situation is like this: they hired our parents to destroy this world, and now they’d like to put us to work rebuilding it, and — to add insult to injury — at a profit.

On ne retombe pas en enfance, on n’en sort jamais. Vieux, moi? Qu’est-ce qu’un vieillard sinon un enfant qui a pris de l’ ge ou du vendre ?…

Je pensais de meme que notre jeunesse etait finie et le bonheur manqué. I thought too that our youth was over and we had failed to find happiness.

I can read a lot of French newspapers with Google Translate and have them read quite comfortably.

Le Parti pouvait mettre à nu les plus petits détails de tout ce que l’on avait dit ou pensé, mais les profondeurs de votre cœur, dont les mouvements étaient mystérieux, même pour vous, demeuraient inviolables.

There is no good word for stomach; just as there is no good word for girlfriend. Stomach is to girlfriend as belly is to lover, and as abdomen is to consort, and as middle is...

Celui qui se conforme aux règles évite de réfléchir. Si tu raisonnes en restant dans le cadre, tu ne trouveras jamais de solution autre que celles auxquelles tout le monde a déjà pensé. Il faut...

French laicite is probably aggressive and antagonistic to the religion, but there are other models of secularism in the world where there could be reconciliation between religion and secularism.

A cheval sur une tombe et une naissance difficile. Du fond du trou, rêveusement, le fossoyeur applique ses fers. On a le temps de vieillir. L’air est plein de nos cris.

His brown eyes would roam around the various sentimental and artistic bric-a-brac present, and his own banal toiles (the conventionally primitive eyes, sliced guitars, blue nipples and geometrical designs of the day), and with a...

He (Lafcadio) was sitting all alone in a compartment of the train which was carrying him away from Rome, & contemplating–not without satisfaction–his hands in their grey doeskin gloves, as they lay on the rich...

So it was perfectly possible that there were men who liked shopping, men who understood exactly what it was all about, but Mma Ramotwe had yet to meet such a man. Maybe they existed elsewhere...

His tightly fitting jeans were unmistakably French.

Je suis à toi.

Présente je vous fuis; absente, je vous trouve;Dans le fond des forêts votre image me suit

Mon être ne subsiste que sous un point de vue suprême qui est justement incompatible avec mon point de vue. La perspective dans laquelle je m’évanouis à mes yeux, me restaure, image complète, pour l’œil...

On devient jeune à soixante ans. Malheureusement, c’est trop tard

Je parle français.” Indira gave me a weird look. Or a look that said I was weird. Whichever. The point is, I don’t really speak French, but it’s a useful phrase for confusing people you...

I come from French Cajun Jewish people.

What isn’t clear, isn’t French.

The true structure of the Welsh grammar will be revealed only when we look at sentences slightly more complicated than its basic VSO pattern. Welsh is no different from the rest of the world: it...

The French aren’t birthed; they’re hatched out of eggs. That’s why they make the best omelets.

It was not the way Curve smelled that Colin liked – not exactly. It was the way the air smelled just as Lindsey began to jog away from him. The smell of perfume left behind....

celebration.

I often asked Laplace what he thought of God. He owned that he was an atheist.

We have been expropriated from our own language by television, from our songs by reality TV contests, from our flesh by mass pornography, from our city by the police and from our friends by wage-labor.

Ce n’était pas une vie; on existait, et c’est tout.

Before a shoot, I’ll watch what I eat. During the shoot, I watch what I eat. Afterwards, the first thing I do is go have a steak and French fries.

I have been obsessed with seamed stockings my whole life, and I would collect vintage ones that were made in the ’40s and ’50s with the authentic styling of the keyhole, the welt, the reinforced...

Le désir était un crime de la pensée.

Je t’aime tant, je ne peux pas trouver la fin de mon amour pour toi(I love you so thar I can’t find the end of my love for you)

La véritable évolution n’est-elle pas intérieure?C’est en se changeant soi-même que l’on devient heureux, pas en changeant ce qui nous entoure.

Le bonheur dure une seconde. Lorsque l’on se réveille, à l’aube, il y a ne moment agréable, juste avant que la conscience se souvienne et que le coeur se serre.

PISTOL-Say’st thou me so? is that a ton of moys? Come hither, boy: ask me this slave in French What is his name.Boy-Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?French Soldier-Monsieur le Fer.Boy- He says his name is Master...

They establish distinctions and reserves which I cannot apply to myself, for I exist only as a whole; my only claim is to be natural, and the pleasure I feel in an action, I take...

Irene gasped. “Have you taken leave of your senses, Stuart?” she hissed. “Have you?”Stuart closed his eyes.”No,” he said. “Au contraire.” It was strong language for the Edinburgh New Town, but he had to say...

What’s the trick to remembering that a sandwich is masculine? What qualities does it share with anyone in possession of a penis? I’ll tell myself that a sandwich is masculine because if left alone for...