And to write is to sow and to reap at the same time.

The more we know, the more pain we have. But because we are human beings, this must be. Otherwise we become objects rather than subjects.

I was involved in trying to save the Rwandan people and Sudan now. It's a mass murder. Mass murder is a terrifying word. We don't have to go further than that. Cambodia came close to, but what was it, Cambodians killing Cambodians after all. So therefore I think we should be very careful with vocabulary.

A man can laugh while he suffers.

I feel very close to French culture and to the French humanism, which occasionally one finds, even in the highest places. And therefore, all of my books have been written in French.

One thing is that [Tibetans] should not give up hope. That's - even [if] it lasts a century. My discussions with the Dalai Lama always were about that.

Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of madness?