I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven's name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.

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

I think [Alain Robbe-Grillet] a good writer, but he speaks to the comfortable bourgeoisie.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

Everything is gratuitous, this garden, this city and myself. When you suddenly realize it, it makes you feel sick and everything begins to drift . . . that's nausea.

I respect orders but I respect myself too and I do not obey foolish rules made especially to humiliate me.

There are two kinds of existentialist; first, those who are Christian...and on the other hand the atheistic existentialists, among whom...I class myself. What they have in common is that they think that existence precedes essence, or, if you prefer, that subjectivity must be the turning point.