In Algeria, I had begun to get into literature and philosophy. I dreamed of writing-and already models were instructing the dream, a certain language governed it.

I was wondering myself where I am going. So I would answer you by saying, first, that I am trying, precisely, to put myself at a point so that I do not know any longer where I am going.

If I only did what I can do, I wouldn't do anything

The blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye.

Psychoanalysis has taught that the dead – a dead parent, for example – can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.

If things were simple, word would have gotten around.

To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.

Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'Here are our monsters,' without immediately turning the monsters into pets.

I always dream of a pen that would be a syringe.

The traditional statement about language is that it is in itself living, and that writing is the dead part of language.

One often speaks without seeing, without knowing, without meaning what one says.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.

...But even then you have to reckon with a criminal's chief vice.''What is that?'' Conceit. A criminal never believes that his crime can fail.

I don't teach my students, I provide the circumstances in which they can learn.

There's a saying, 'It's easy to write songs, but very difficult to write great songs.' I'm going through that right now.

He who slings mud loses ground.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city.

For though I am a body of this earth, my firm desire is born from the stars.

No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.