'I don't think it matters much what kind of tag you put on things that happened in the past,' I said. 'What matters is the future'.

'That's just it,' he said spiritedly. 'To make something good of the future, you have to look the present in the face. And I get the distinct impression that these people here aren't doing that at all. Dubreuilh talks to me of a literary review, Parron of a pleasure trip. They all seem to feel they'll be able to go on living just like before the war'.

The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir