And there is a time, glorious too in its own way, when one scarcely exists, when one is a complete void. I mean, when boredom seems the very stuff of life.

The earth is not a lair, neither is it a prison. The earth is a Paradise, the only one we'll ever know. We will realize it the moment we open our eyes. We don't have to make it a Paradise-it is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit it. The man with the gun, the man with murder in his heart, cannot possibly recognize Paradise even when he is shown it.

An artist earns the right to call himself a creator only when he admits to himself that he is but an instrument.

France may one day exist no more, but the Dordogne will live on just as dreams live on and nourish the souls of men.

My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.

Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness.

The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.