Their pleasures are fierce and their sleep impenetrable. And they know that the body has a soul in which the soul has no part.

Believe me, for certain men at least, not taking what one doesn't desire is the hardest thing in the world.

If there is a soul, it is a mistake to believe that it is given to us fully created. It is created here, throughout a whole life. And living is nothing else but that long and painful bringing forth.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

In order to speak about all and to all, one has to speak of what all know and of the reality common to us all. The sea, rains, necessity, desire, the struggle against death... these are things that unite us all.

Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.