“In publishing The First Man I said to myself, 'this is going to be awful,' but awful from the point of view of the criticism. I'm not afraid of [Albert] Camus' public. I'm afraid of what will be written in the papers.” MenFirstsSaidViewsWrittenPaperCriticismPoint Of ViewAwfulNot AfraidPublishingPapers Author:Catherine Camus
“[Albert] Camus always insisted that historical criteria and historical reasoning were not the only things to take into account, and that they weren't all powerful, that history could always be wrong about man. Today, this is how we are starting to think.” ThinkingMenTodayPowerfulAccountsHistoricalStartingReasoningCriteria Author:Catherine Camus
“The First Man is [Albert Camus] posthumous last work. But in fact, in a certain way, it is his first, because in it you find the signs of his commitments, and of the whole way of writing as well. This mixture of austerity and sensuality, the will to speak for those not able to speak for themselves.” MenWayWritingFirstsWellsWholeFactsAbleLastsCertainSpeakCommitmentSensualityMixturesAusterityPosthumous Author:Catherine Camus
“We can't talk about the book [Albert Camus] wanted to write because we have barely its beginnings. He had written hardly any of it, but he needed to write it. It seems to me that if you look at the style of The First Man it conforms much more to who he was as a man, it resembles him very closely.” IfsMenWritingFirstsLooksBookSeemsWantedWrittenStyleNeededConform Author:Catherine Camus
“[Albert Camus] is The First Man because he is poor, which has never been much to human beings.” MenFirstsHumansHuman BeingsPoor Author:Catherine Camus
“One thing that is evident is that [Albert] Camus could never be a 'neutral' man. This is because he was committed; look at his real physical involvement in the Resistance. He took part, there, in the combat against Nazism.” MenLooksRealOne ThingCommittedResistanceCombatEvidentInvolvementNazism Author:Catherine Camus
“[Albert Camus] was completely intransigent, and that's not at all a neutrality. It's combat, it's a man who involved himself, committed himself.” MenInvolvedCommittedCombatNeutrality Author:Catherine Camus
“Of course, [Albert Camus] wasn't an existentialist, but he was a committed man. He was a man of combat. It wasn't for nothing that he directed the Resistance journal called Combat.” MenCoursesCommittedResistanceCombatJournalExistentialist Author:Catherine Camus
“Today this is what we are confronted with, I mean what is pure ideology, which takes no account of the human context. In economics it's the same. Economics wanted to take into account theory over and above human criteria, or the parameter 'man'.” MenHumansMeanTodayWantedTheoryPureEconomicsAccountsIdeologyCriteriaParameters Author:Catherine Camus
“You end up beating your head against a wall again, it doesn't work. Not if you make an abstraction of man. That's why [Albert] Camus is more a la mode now, because he always says 'yes, but there's man. That's the first thing, because myself, I'm a man.' And that's what solidarity .” IfsMenFirstsEndsWallSolidarityAbstraction Author:Catherine Camus
“What the articles which have been written about The First Man propose is humility. The acceptance of these contradictions. Seeking an explanation is death. The lie is death in [Albert] Camus. That's why in Camus' play The Misunderstood the son dies, killed by his sister and his mother, because he lied. He never told them who he was. They killed him because they didn't recognise him.” MenFirstsHas BeensPlayLyingMotherDiesWrittenAcceptanceHumilitySonSeekingExplanationContradictionArticlesMisunderstoodLiedProposeRecogniseHe Lied Author:Catherine Camus
“Femininity, yes, effectively there is more in The First Man, not only in terms of women but stylistically, in its elements, the notes he wrote. You can see a real love story in it, a childhood love story, [Albert] Camus' first. Meursault [protagonist of The Outsider] and Marie were never up to much really. There is Dora in The Just and others in his plays, but they aren't so well known.” MenFirstsWellsRealPlayStoriesTermKnownChildhoodElementsNotesLove StoryReal LoveOutsidersWell KnownFemininityProtagonistsMarie Author:Catherine Camus
“Love is very important in The First Man, in that [Albert] Camus loves these things he never chose, he loves his childhood experience in a very real way. Their poverty meant that there was nothing else they could think about but what they would eat, how they would clothe themselves. There's just no room for other things in his family. It's difficult for others to imagine the position in which he found himself. There is no imaginary existence in their lives.” ThinkingMenWayFirstsImportantRealFoundDifficultLove IsRoomsExistencePovertyImagineChildhoodPositionImaginary Author:Catherine Camus
“The First Man is completely autobiographical. The mother [Albert Camus] describes is the woman I knew, and she was exactly as he describes her. And this teacher really existed.” MenFirstsMotherTeacher Author:Catherine Camus
