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 individual's duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenge every idea and every person.

I had realized in the meantime that action too has its difficulties, and that one can also be led to it by neurosis. We are not saved by politics any more than by literature.

I never could bear the idea of anyone's expecting something from me. It always made me want to do just the opposite.

How can I, who was not able to retain my own past, hope to save that of another?

Is there really nothing, nothing left of me?

It is disgusting -- Why must we have bodies?