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

It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods.

I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.

A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

To think new thoughts you have to break the bones in your head

What I lacked [in La Nausee] was a sense of reality. I have changed since. I have slowly learned to experience reality.

There is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving.