And not only does one not seize at once and retain an impression of works that are really great, but even in the content of any such work (as befell … - Marcel Proust

M. de Charlus made no reply and looked as if he had not heard, which was one of his favourite forms of rudeness.

All the products of one period have something in common; the artists who illustrate the poetry of their generation are the same artists who are employed by the big financial houses. And nothing reminds me so much of the monthly parts of Notre-Dame de Paris, and of various books by Gérard de Nerval, that used to hang outside the grocer's door at Combray, than does, in its rectangular and flowery border, supported by recumbent river-gods, a 'personal share' in the Water Company.

...my house contains every useless thing in the world. it lacks only the one essential, a piece of sky like this one...