Prends garde, mon garçon, on en meurt.
Notes from Wikiquote
Ch. 5 (tr. Brian Nelson, 2012)
Death and the sowing of seeds: and the life of bread growing up out of the earth.
This woman was as necessary to his life as eating and drinking.
When younger, he had been fun-loving to the point of tedium.
As one must die, I would rather die of passion than boredom!
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Émile Zola (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.