L'enfance attribue a son ignorance et à sa gaucherie l'incommodité du monde; il lui semble que loin, sur la rive opposée de l'océan et de l'expérience, le fruit est plus savoureux et plus réel, le soleil plus jaune et plus amène, les paroles et les actes des hommes plus intelligibles, plus justes et mieux définis.

Juan José Saer, L'ancêtre, p.10

The old man was never seen again. The quiet foreigners who had rented a certain quiet house for one quiet month had been innocent Dutchmen or Danes. It was but an optical trick. There is no green door, but only a grey one, which no human strenght can burst open. I have vainly searched through admirable encyclopedias: there is no philosopher called Pierre Labime.

Vladimir Nabokov, "The Assistant Producer" in Nabokov's Dozen