Society turns away from the aged worker as though he belonged to another species. That is why the whole question is buried in a conspiracy of silence. Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilization.

A couple who go on living together merely because that was how they began, without any other reason: was that what we were turning into?

The misfortune is that although everyone must come to [death], each experiences the adventure in solitude. We never left Maman during those last days... and yet we were profoundly separated from her.

In fact, people seem to be tired of fiction now. There are so many other ways of exploring humanity - by ethnology, psychoanalysis, and so on. It's a little boring to make up stories. So many people think that it's better to be very close to reality and to recount one's life as it is rather than to fictionalize, as they say, that is to transpose, and therefore to cheat.

When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...].

it is so difficult not to become vain about one's own good luck.

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