As long as the writer cannot write for the two billion men who are hungry, he will be oppressed by a feeling of malaise.

It is therefore senseless to think of complaining since nothing foreign has decided what we feel, what we live, or what we are.

That is exactly the writer's problem. What does literature stand for in a hungry world?

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.

The revolution you dream of is not ours. You don't want to change the world; you want to blow it up.

For the time being I have seen enough of living things, of dogs, of men, of all flabby masses which move spontaneously.

Once we know and are aware, we are responsible for our action and our inaction. We can do something about it or ignore it. Either way, we are still responsible.