I sometimes need to write things which I cannot completely control but which therefore prove that what is in me is stronger than I am.

For a man who loves power, competition from the gods is annoying. I have done away with that. I have proven to these illusory godsthat a man, if he has the will, can practice, without any apprenticeship, their ridiculous trade.

But the world itself has no reason, and I can say so, I who have experienced it all, from the creation to the destruction.

There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined.

From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. But whether or not one can live with one's passions, whether or not one can accept their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt - that is the whole question.

My profession lent itself nicely to my vocation for heights. It freed me of any bitterness towards my fellow men, who were alwaysin my debt, without my owing them anything. It placed me above the judge whom, I in turn judged, above the defendant whom I forced into gratitude.

Whatever prevents you from doing your work has become your work.