Marc Levy Quotes

every moment is forever

It's when you give something that you have very little of, that you truly give. - Arthur

Novels should reflect reality to some extent, otherwise they risk being sentimental.

Is it the freedom of characters in fiction that we find so inspiring, or the way that freedom transforms them?

An angel passed. that's what the French say about a comfortable silence.

If you want to know the value of one year, just ask a student who failed a course.
If you want to know the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
If you want to know the value of one hour, ask the lovers waiting to meet.
If you want to know the value of one minute, ask the person who just missed the bus.
If you want to know the value of one second, ask the person who just escaped death in a car accident.
And if you want to know the value of one-hundredth of a second, ask the athlete who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

My mother died yesterday, yesterday many years ago. You know, what amazed me the most the next day after her leaving was the fact that the buildings were still in place, the streets were still full of cars running, full of people who were walking, seemingly ignoring that my whole world has just disappeared.
(rough translation)

Recognizing happiness when it's lying at your feet, having the will and courage to reach down and take it in your arms
and to hold on to it
that's the heart's intelligence. Intelligence minus the heart is just logic, and that doesn't amount to much. - Arthur

If you want to understand what a year of life means, ask a student who just flunked his end-of-the-year exams. Or a month of life: speak to a mother who has just given birth to a premature baby and is waiting for him to be taken out of the incubator before she can hold him safe and sound in her arms. Or a week: interview a man who works in a factory or a mine to feed his family. Or a day: ask two people madly in love who are waiting for their next rendezvous. Or an hour: talk to a claustrophobia sufferer stuck in a broken-down elevator. Or a second: look at the expression on the face of a man who has just escaped from a car wreck. Or one-thousandth of a second: ask the athlete who just won the silver medal at the Olympic Games, and not the gold he trained for all his life. Life is magic, Arthur, and I know what I'm saying because since my accident I appreciate the value of every instant. So I beg you, let's make the most of all the seconds that we have left.

Each second with you is worth more than any other second

When you're in front of a camera, it's not the words that count but the way they sound. It hardly matters what you say as long as you say it with a smile.

You only need two or three details to set the scene. More than that and you can lose the reader's interest.