Albert Cohen

"Go away, image of my living mother, full of life, as I saw her in France for the last time. Go away! My mothers ghost."

"My true single consolation is that she is not present to see me in my agony of her death."

"I say to myself that her small hands are no more worm, and that I would never again carry them soft to my front."

"In my solitude I sing to myself a sweet lullaby, as sweet as my mother used to sing to me."

"In my sleep, which is the song of the tombs, I have just seen her again, as beautiful as in her youth."

"She answers no more, the one who used to answer always."

"She does not talk anymore, the one who used to talk so pleasantly."

"With her alone I could be far away from everyone."

"Only with her I was not alone, now I am alone with everyone."

"Yes, the words, the land of my birth, they console me and compensate, but they would not bring me my mother back."

"Brothers, my human brothers, force me to believe in eternal life."

"Alone dwells every man and everyone mocks everyone else, and a deserted island is our pain."