I was so depressed for the next three days that more than once I thought I would die. I mean that literally. No matter how great an effort I made, I could not utter a word. I begin to disbelieve that people die of grief, because I am alive.

Letter to Alfred LePoittevin, 13 May 1845. As quoted in: The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857 (Harvard University Press, 1980)