France is a country where thinking is supposed to be furtive, invisible, almost clandestine. France is a country of cliques and sects.

I work even when I am on vacation. You know that line by Stéphane Mallarmé, "All earthly existence must ultimately be contained in a book"? I am the kind of person who finds life interesting only if it is translated into writing, if it is parsed into words.

There is a true weakness in American thought today: their incapacity to be interested in the intelligence of evil.

In general, Europeans need to get a wider perspective on the problem of Islamism. Even if the Israel-Palestine question were solved - and I think and hope that one day soon it will be - this wouldn't stop one person from becoming a terrorist.

The conservatives want to revolutionize the world all at once. And that's a dangerous proposal.

Europe has certainly lost confidence in itself. This was something that, when I was a young man, we never imagined would happen.

I would hope that Europe always has a privileged relationship with the United States. The alternatives are not attractive.