Repeat, over and over again, in case anyone forgets it or believes the contrary, that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.

A writer or painter cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of nonconformity alive.

I can't help feeling that there is no beauty without hope, struggle, and conquest.

Refuse any image that could have a rational meaning or any memory or culture

If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence.

I say to hell with the work you have to do to earn a living! That kind of work does us no honor; all it does is fill up the bellies of the pigs who exploit us. But the work you do because you like to do it, because you've heard the call, you've got a vocation - that's ennobling! We should all be able to work like that. Look at me, Saturno - I don't work. And I don't care if they hang me, I won't work! Yet I'm alive! I may live badly, but at least I don't have to work to do it!

Thank God I'm an atheist.