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1 " Readers, friends, less than friends, enemies, Critics! Here I am at it again with Book I of Guignol! Don't judge me too soon! Wait awhile for what's to follow! Book II! Book III! it all clears up! develops, straightens out! As is, ¾ of it's missing! Is that a way to do things? It had to be printed fast because with things as they are you don't know who's living or dead! "
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline , Guignol's Band
2 " I knew a real archangel on the downgrade, though still rather frisky, even resplendent in a way. "
3 " I'm doddering around like an old bumblebee, I'm all tangled up in the air, Ah sees it, I ain't tellin' things in the right order, what about it! You'll excuse me somewhat, kidding about my memories, digressing from rhyme to reason, jabbering away about my friends instead of showing you around!...Let's go! and let's keep going!...Let me show you around nicely...straying neither right nor left!... "
4 " I never saw Claben bawled out for his performance, his extortions, yet he was a louse, the worst vile stingy hyena when it came to usury and dishonesty! A skunk when it came to "lend and lease"! Never a day's, a penny's grace...the worst tyrant about extensions...he'd fleece them to zero!...he'd finish off even the most decrepit woebegone wrecks...he'd suck them beyond the bone!...and he'd insult them besides into the bargain! "
5 " "Can you ride a horse?" What a question! "Hah! and how! take it from me! I'll say I can! When it comes to horses I can do anything! I can saddle 'em! water 'em! make 'em trot! gallop! leap! pass! waltz!...Whatever you like...And references, eh! Five years!...I've slept with horses! eaten with 'em! I've eaten their droppings! I've still got a mouthful! That shows you! that shows you! I'm still rearing! kicking! I'm almost a horse myself! from me to you! just between us! more than half!...I had to! Is that enough for you? "
6 " Old Foxy kept on talking!...He was attracting attention in the crowd!...Nobody asked to see his papers...That was the amazing thing!...The kids, the tarts, the soldier-boys ran after him, pulled at him, played tricks on him!...They came touching his dragon, pinching his robe, his behind... "