Joshua Jackson: Emile Zola

I think Joshua Jackson would make for an exceptional young Emile Zola, in a film about the French writer's life...not to mention his uncanny likeness!!! Here's a bit more info on Emile Zola:

Zola, Emile (1840-1902)

Zola was a French writer. His father died while he was still young, and he was brought up in poverty in the south of France. He wrote many short stories, and became well known when his novel Therese Raquin was published in 1868. It tells the story of a woman who encourages her lover to murder her husband, but who is then plagued by remorse. Like all Zola's novels, it is very realistic.

Zola always took care to research the settings and characters for his novels so that he could create a completely convincing picture of their lives. After the success of Therese, he began a long series of books which dealt with different aspects of 19th-century France, as the country gradually became industrialized. They include La Terre (about a peasant) and Nana (about prostitution). He also wrote essays and articles for newspapers, and in 1898 he wrote a famous letter to the president demanding that the falsely imprisoned army officer Dreyfus be given a new trial. His attack on the army got him into trouble, and he had to escape to England for a time. He died in Paris when he accidentally suffocated himself.

*Here are some of my favorite quotes from Emile Zola:

"Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco."

"I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity."

"If I cannot overwhelm with my quality, I will overwhelm with my quantity."

"If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud."

"If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow."

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without the work."

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men."

"The thought is a deed. Of all deeds she fertilizes the world the most."