“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.”

“To love does not mean to look at each other, but to work together in the same direction.”

“What does tamed mean? It's something that's been too often neglected. It means to create ties.”

“Each man carries within him the soul of a poet who died young.”

“The best place for discovering what a man is is the heart of the desert. Your plane has broken down, and you walk for hours, heading for the little fort at Nutchott. You wait for the mirages of thirst to gape before you. But you arrive and you find an old sergeant who has been isolated for months among the dunes, and he is so happy to be found that he weeps. And you weep, too. In the arching immensity of the night, each tells the story of his life, each offers the other the burden of memories in which the human bond is discovered. Here two men can meet, and they bestow gifts upon each other with the dignity of ambassadors.”

“Sometimes we behave as though there was something more important than life. But what?”

“No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.”