Camus himself described this work as 'an attempt to understand the time I live in'.

I know simply that the sky will last longer than I.

Modern conquerors can kill, but do not seem to be able to create. Artists know how to create but cannot really kill. Murderers are only very exceptionally found among artists.

It is a well-known fact that we always recognize our homeland at the moment we are about to lose it.

A craving for freedom and independence is generated only in a man still living on hope.

Men and women consume one another rapidly in what is called "the act of love," or else settle down to a mild habit of conjugality. We seldom find a mean between these two extremes.

It is necessary to fall in love... if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway.