One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland -- and no other."

"Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again."

"To be human is no solution, any more than ceasing to be so."

"Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment."

Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.