God put self-pity by the side of despair like the cure by the side of the disease.

I sometimes need to write things which I cannot completely control but which therefore prove that what is in me is stronger than I am.

I don't want to be a genius-I have enough problems just trying to be a man.

Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that's what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.

The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.

Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.

Freedom is the right to never have to lie.