If I did not publish this autobiography [Les Mots] sooner and in its most radical form, it is because I considered it exaggerated.
The form [of literature] matters little to me, classical or not.
If you begin by saying, 'Thou shalt not lie,' there is no longer any possibility of political action.
Better a good journalist than a poor assassin.
Little flashes of sun on the surface of a cold, dark sea.
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.