“The essence of life is the smile of round female bottoms, under the shadow of cosmic boredom.”

I've been trying to find something on Guy de Maupassant's phobia about creativity and orgasms, and how - after failing his artistic chastity with a visit to a brothel - he, supposedly, said "There went a novel!" While I haven't found that, I did find the quote that's the subject of this post. Quite lovely ....