One can ask why the I has to appear in the cogito {Descartes’ argument “I think therefore I am.}, since the cogito, if used rightly, is the awareness of pure consciousness, not directed at any fact or action. In fact the I is not necessary here, since it is never united directly to consciousness. One can even imagine a pure and self-aware consciousness which thinks of itself as impersonal spontaneity.

One of the chief motives of artistic creation is certainly the need of feeling that we are essential in relationship to the world.

The plight of modern man is that he is condemmed to be free.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June

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

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.