All I can do is make the best of what I am, become accustomed to it, evaluate the possibilities, and take advantage of them the best I can.

When we love animals and children too much, we love them at the expense of men.

On my way to the office in the morning, there are, in front of me, behind me, other men going to their jobs. I see them; if I dared, I would smile at them. I think to myself that I am a socialist, that they are the purpose of my life, of my efforts and that they do not know it yet.

I am finishing a biography of [Gustave] Flaubert. Because he is the opposite of what I am. One needs to rub up against argument.

I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.

I will take it all: tongs, molten lead, prongs, garrotes, all that burns, all that tears, I want to truly suffer. Better one hundred bites, better the whip, vitriol, than this suffering in the head, this ghost of suffering which grazes and caresses and never hurts enough.

Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.