To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. Society has but little connection with such beginnings. The worm is in man's heart. That is where it must be sought. One must follow and understand this fatal game that leads from lucidity in the face of existence to flight from light.

Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

I feel like getting married, or committing suicide, or subscribing to L'Illustration. Something desperate, you know.

We [writers] must know that we can never escape the common misery and that our only justification, if indeed there is a justification, is to speak up, insofar as we can, for those who cannot do so.

The principle can be established that for a man who does not cheat what he believes to be true must determine his actions.

Everything is true, and nothing is true!