Pascal Mercier

the dreary railroad station lamps slid past one after another into the dark.

Sleepless people were bound by a wordless solidarity.

Later, he had sometimes felt guilty about this accusation. The safety and self-confidence he didn’t have weren’t something a person could control or be accused for lacking. You had to be lucky with yourself to be a self-confident person. And his father hadn’t had much luck, either with himself or with others.