… is from page 297 of Irene Nemirovsky‘s beautiful novel, written during the early years of World War II but not published until 2006, Suite Francaise.
I want to be free. I’m not asking for superficial freedom, the freedom to travel, to leave this house (even though that would be unimaginably blissful). I’d rather feel free inside – to choose my own path, never to waver, not to follow the swarm. I hate this community spirit they go on and on about. The Germans, the French, the Gaullists, they all agree on one thing: you have to love, think, live with other people, as part of a state, a country, a political party. Oh, my God! I don’t want to!
