Heroism is not to be won at the point of a pen.

How can I, who was not able to retain my own past, hope to save that of another?

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.

Why do you keep maintaining your ideas are right if you can't prove them?

I have always been happy. Even if I had been more honest with regard to myself at that moment I should still have written La Nausee.

Because the Nazi venom worked its way even into our thoughts, every accurate thought was a conquest; because an all-powerful police sought to force us into silence every word became as precious as a declaration of principle; because we were persecuted, each of our gestures carried the weight of a commitment.

A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing.