I discovered suddenly that alienation, exploitation of man by man, under-nourishment, relegated to the background metaphysical evil which is a luxury.

[Contemporary writer] could be a kind of [Samuel] Beckett who would not be felt to be totally committed to despair.

I do not understand! I understand nothing! I cannot understand nor do I want to understand! I want to believe! To Believe!

A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing.

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

Take [Stéphane] Mallarme. I hold him to be the greatest of French poets, and I have taken some time to understand him !

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.