Françoise Sagan quotes

Françoise Sagan was a French novelist, playwright, and screenwriter renowned for her debut novel "Bonjour Tristesse." Her works explored themes of love, freedom, and existential ennui in postwar French society. She became a literary icon for her elegant prose and rebellious spirit. Here are 56 of her quotes:

Of course the illusion of art is to make one believe that great literature is very close to life, but exactly the opposite is true. Life is amorphous, literature is formal. (Françoise Sagan)
To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Art must take reality by surprise. View quote
Françoise Sagan
There is a certain age when a woman must be beautiful to be loved, and then there comes a time when she must be loved to be beautiful. View quote
Françoise Sagan
It is healthier to see the good points of others than to analyze our own bad ones. View quote
Françoise Sagan
curiosity is the beginning of wisdom. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Only by pursuing the extremes in one's nature, with all its contradictions, appetites, aversions, rages, can one hope to understand a little - oh, I admit only a very little - of what life is about. View quote
Françoise Sagan
No one ever has time to examine himself honestly, and most people look no further than their neighbors' eyes, in which they may see their own reflection. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Love is worth whatever it costs. View quote
Françoise Sagan
In love, as in finance, only the rich can get credit. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Passion is the salt of life, and that at the times when we are under its spell this salt is indispensable to us, even if we have got along very well without it before. (Françoise Sagan)
No one is more conventional than a woman who is falling out of love. View quote
Françoise Sagan
For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Unhappiness has nothing to teach, and resignation is ugly. View quote
Françoise Sagan
No one, but no one, ever behaves "well" in bed unless they love or are loved - two conditions seldom fulfilled. View quote
Françoise Sagan
She'd like to be indispensable; that's what every woman wants... View quote
Françoise Sagan
We always want someone we've treated badly to be gay. It's less upsetting. View quote
Françoise Sagan
One must cherish one's effigies, if one can tolerate them, perhaps more lovingly than one cherishes one's intrinsic self. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Women believed in death. Without exception. It was part of their makeup. Whereas men refused to face up to it. Not only death, in fact, but life, too: a man, learning that his wife or girlfriend is pregnant, reacts like some beast of the field - "I can't believe it's true!" - while women look at the same situation as either happy news or a momentary inconvenience. View quote
Françoise Sagan
Lying stimulates one's imagination and ingenuity. View quote
Françoise Sagan
A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to take it off of you. (Françoise Sagan)
Every little girl knows about love. It is only her capacity to suffer because of it that increases. View quote
Françoise Sagan
The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read. View quote
Françoise Sagan
You should celebrate the end of a love affair as they celebrate death in New Orleans, with songs, laughter, dancing and a lot of wine. View quote
Françoise Sagan
All my life, I will continue obstinately to write about love, solitude and passion among the kind of people I know. The rest don't interest me. View quote
Françoise Sagan