Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.

What I regretted in La Nausee was not to have put myself completely into the thing. I remained outside my hero's disease, protected by my neurosis which, through writing, gave me happiness.

The plight of modern man is that he is condemmed to be free.

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

I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted.

The more absurd life is, the more insupportable death is.