Life begins on the other side of despair.
Man is what he wills himself to be.
That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.
It is therefore senseless to think of complaining since nothing foreign has decided what we feel, what we live, or what we are.
We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.
Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.
I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted.
It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.
I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati’s.
To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June.
Don’t you feel the same way? When I cannot see myself, even though I touch myself, I wonder if I really exist.
What is boredom? It is when there is simultaneously too much and not enough.
The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.
Words are loaded pistols.
Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.
Acting is happy agony.
People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?
Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.
I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.