There has to be a certain relationship between the life and the writing style, and that is really a problem.

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.

The renewed use of lobotomy today is particularly applicable to women: Because they do routine things, it is possible to take away their spirit of revolt, of debate, of criticism, and still leave them perfectly capable of making stews or washing dishes. It's terrible, this tendency to consider women something dangerous to society.

Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.

Self-knowledge is no guarantee of happiness, but it is on the side of happiness and can supply the courage to fight for it.

The nearer I come to the end of my days, the more I am enabled to see that strange thing, a life, and to see it whole.

That a whole part of the middle class detests me... is utterly normal. I would be troubled if the contrary were true.