Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.

Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.

All human actions are equivalent... and all are on principle doomed to failure.

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

There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.

Originally, poetry creates the myth, while the prose-writer draws its portrait.

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