- Henri Bouley: "Tout ce qui pue ne tue pas, et tout ce qui tue ne pue pas"  ('All that stinks does not kill and all that kills does not stink").

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The author directly mentions just how badly Paris stank (during the time period in which Perfume takes place) and makes sure to emphasize it numerous times throughout the early stages of the book.

If you want to read more, click on the link below. (only for supplementary information).

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This article highlights Grenouille's understanding of scent as a form of disguised power

By portraying the post-Hitler era of despondency in his generation, he hints at the idea that many of his works, including Perfume is influenced by the events that occurred during the Third Reich.

Through Perfume, Suskind establishes parallels amongst both Hitler and Grenouille with both characterized as "abominable" people. In addition to his actions influenced by violence and 🤬, the two present parallels in their struggled upbringing, the ways in which they discovered the purpose to their lives and their thirst for megalomaniac aspirations.

During his researches, he said, he bought a motor scooter and drove through the perfume-producing country of southern France just sniffing, in the manner of the misanthropic protagonist of  Perfume, who murders beautiful girls to collect their scents.

''Smelling was practically the only sense I had functioning on the Vespa, with goggles I could hardly see and with the helmet on I couldn't hear anything.'' - Patrick Suskind

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This experience during his research sheds light on how Suskind learned so much about strictly different scents, a sense we often undermine, and why Suskind wrote about smell being the only true scent that mattered to a human, where as "men could close their hearts to sight and sound, but not scent."

He was troubled that readers associated themselves with Grenouille.
He is a proponent of the Enlightenment.