I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn't mine anymore, but one in which I'd found the simplest and most lasting joys.

The absurd is essentially a divorce. It lies in neither of the elements compared; it is born of their confrontation.

We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself.

What made me run away was doubtless not so much the fear of settling down, but of settling down permanently in something ugly.

I have never been able, really, to regret anything in all my life. I have always been far much too absorbed in the present moment or the immediate future to think back.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.