Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

In Les Mots I explain the origin of my madness, of my neurosis. This analysis may help the young who dream of writing.

I am alone in this white, garden-rimmed street. Alone and free. But this freedom is rather like death.

Many young people today do not concern themselves with style. They think that what one says should be said simply and that is all. For me, style - which does not exclude simplicity, quite the opposite - is above all a way of saying three or four things in one. There is the simple sentence, with its immediate meaning, and then at the same time, below this immediate meaning, other meanings are organized. If one is not capable of giving language this plurality of meaning, then it is not worth the trouble to write.

What is boredom? It is when there is simultaneously too much and not enough.

When one does nothing, one believes oneself responsible for everything.

No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point.