“For the first time in my life I had known the intense pleasure of analyzing another person, manipulating that person toward my own ends. It was a new experience; in the past I had always been too impulsive, and whenever I had come close to understanding someone, it had been pure accident. Now I had caught a sudden glimpse of the marvelous mechanism of human reflexes, and the power that lies in the spoken word. I felt sorry that I had come to it through lies. The day might come when I would love someone passionately, and would have to search warily, gently for the way to reach his heart.”
– Cecile, ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ by Francoise Sagan
