We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.

The wretched of the earth do not decide to become extinct, they resolve, on the contrary, to multiply: life is their weapon against life, life is all that they have.

The impossible is the least that one can demand.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.

If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it.

A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence.

In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.