I considered calmly that I was born to write.

If I relegate impossible Salvation to the prop room, what remains? A whole man, composed of all men and as good as all of them and no better than any.

I respect orders but I respect myself too and I do not obey foolish rules made especially to humiliate me.

To think new thoughts you have to break the bones in your head

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

[M]an is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The Existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion.

[Contemporary writer] could be a kind of [Samuel] Beckett who would not be felt to be totally committed to despair.