Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

Mistakes are joyful, truth infernal.

The greatness of man lies in his decision to be stronger than his condition.

Every great work makes the human face more admirable and richer, and this is its whole secret.

In that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself--like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.

The day of my arrest I was first put in a room where there were already several other prisoners, most of them Arabs. They laughed when they saw me. Then they asked what I was in for. I said I'd killed an Arab and they were all silent