Philosophy which does not help to illuminate the process of the liberation of the oppressed should be rejected.

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

As long as the writer cannot write for the two billion men who are hungry, he will be oppressed by a feeling of malaise.

Is there really nothing, nothing left of me?

That’s what existence means: draining one’s own self dry without the sense of thirst.

I think there is an enormous diference between speaking and writing. One rereads what one writes. But one might read it slowly or quickly. In other words, you do not know how long you will have to spend deliberating over a sentence. ... But if I listen to a tape recorder, the listening time is determined by the speed at which the tape turns and not by my own needs.

To keep hope alive one must, in spite of all mistakes, horrors, and crimes, recognize the obvious superiority of the socialist camp.