What I ask of [the writer] is not to ignore the reality and the fundamental problems that exist. The world's hunger, the atomic threat, the alienation of man, I am astonished that they do not color all our literature.

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.

Nothingness haunts Being.

One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.

A madman's ravings are absurd in relation to the situation in which he finds himself, but not in relation to his madness.

The appearance of the other in the world corresponds therefore to a congealed sliding of the whole universe.

Why do you keep maintaining your ideas are right if you can't prove them?