How had I not seen that there was nothing more important than an execution, and that when you come right down to it, it was the only thing a man could truly be interested in?

Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death—and I refuse suicide.

In Holland, everyone is an expert in painting and in tulips.

Crime too is a form of solitude, even if one thousand get together to commit it. And it is right for me to die alone, after having lived and killed alone.

God is not necessary to create culpability, or to punish. Our fellow men are enough for that, helped by ourselves.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

I lived with the only continuity, day to day, of the me-me-me.