A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.

The writer is committed when he plunges to the very depths of himself with the intent to disclose, not his individuality, but his person in the complex society that conditions and supports him.

I was a neophyte in another world [in 1954].

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

The aim of language...is to communicate...to impart to others the results one has obtained...As I talk, I reveal the situation...I reveal it to myself and to others in order to change it.

I had found my religion: nothing seemed more important to me than a book. I saw the library as a temple.

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.