" It can be really exasperating to look back at your past. What’s the matter with you? I want to ask her, my younger self, shaking her shoulder. If I did that, she would probably cry. Maybe I would cry, too. It would be like one of those Marguerite Duras books I tried to read in Svetlana’s aunt’s apartment.
Elle pleure.
Il pleure.
Ils pleurent, tous les deux. "
― Elif Batuman , The Idiot