Man's misfortune stems from the fact that he does not want to stay in the room where he belongs. - Patrick Süskind

Their compacted human effluvium had oppressed him like air heavy with an imminent thunderstorm. Until now he had thought that it was the world in general he had wanted to squirm away from. But it was not the world, it was the people in it.

A guard was like a sphinx. He functioned not by some deed, but rather by his mere bodily presence.

Constantly before his eyes now was a river flowing from him; and it was as if he himself and his house and the wealth he had accumulated over many decades were flowing away like the river, while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current.