For forty years I was conscripted by the absolute, the neurosis. The absolute is gone. There remain countless tasks among which literature is in no way privileged.

If I did not publish this autobiography [Les Mots] sooner and in its most radical form, it is because I considered it exaggerated.

Several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity.

Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them... there is nothing.

I think [Alain Robbe-Grillet] a good writer, but he speaks to the comfortable bourgeoisie.

Uncalled-for aggression arouses the hatred of the civilian population.

We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act.