We are now in a position to understand the anti-Semite. He is a man who is afraid. Not of the Jews, to be sure, but of himself, of his own consciousness, of his liberty, of his instincts, of his responsibilities, of solitariness, of change, of society, and of the world of everything except the Jews.

In Les Mots I explain the origin of my madness, of my neurosis. This analysis may help the young who dream of writing.

Many young people today do not concern themselves with style. They think that what one says should be said simply and that is all. For me, style - which does not exclude simplicity, quite the opposite - is above all a way of saying three or four things in one. There is the simple sentence, with its immediate meaning, and then at the same time, below this immediate meaning, other meanings are organized. If one is not capable of giving language this plurality of meaning, then it is not worth the trouble to write.

If literature isn't everything, it's not worth a single hour of someone's trouble.

The universe remains dark. We are animals struck by catastrophe.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are - that is the fact.

Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes.