Nausea Memory and the Past Quotes

For someone who doesn't think that memories "exist," Antoine sure has a lot of 'em. He especially seems to get nostalgic when he remembers times in the past when he was with his ex lover Anny. The problem is that this is just a trap of nostalgia and Antoine knows it. Getting back together with Anny isn't going to solve his sickness. It's only going to distract him for a while. At the end of the day, he'll just end up pulling a second person into his misery. Antoine needs to get himself figured out before he can go asking someone else to spend their life with him.

When a crazy man named M. Achille stares at Antoine across a bar, Antoine can only hope that the man won't try to strike up a conversation. After all, there's nothing they can do to relieve one another's loneliness or boredom. They are both doomed to be alone and without memories. In other words, families have memories that bind them together, but Antoine and M. Achille are loners who don't share their memories with anyone. They have lived their lives alone and they'll die alone.

Even though he believes that memories don't "exist" in a technical sense, Antoine thinks that memories of doing stuff are often better than doing stuff in the present moment. In other words, he understands why people get nostalgic sometimes. When you remember something from the past, it's easy to remember only the parts of it that were good. But when you deal with something in the here and now, it's harder to appreciate it because there are usually so many thoughts going through your head.