Annie Ernaux

And then it is child’s play for others to get around you, leap into the emptiness you are, and you refuse them nothing – you barely feel their presence. You wait for the Master to grace you with his touch, if only one more time. One night he does, with the absolute su­premacy you’ve begged him for with all your being. The next day he is gone, but little does it matter. The hope of seeing him again has become your reason for living, for putting on your clothes, improving your mind, and

Our real self is not entirely inside of us.’

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What seems to us serious, significant, very important, will one day be forgotten or will seem unimportant.