“[Albert]Camus had denounced the gulag and Stalin's trials. Today we can see that he was right. To say that there were concentration camps in the USSR at the time was blasphemous, something very serious indeed. Today we think about the USSR with the camps also in mind, but before it just wasn't allowed. Nobody was allowed to think that or say that if you were left-wing.” IfsThinkingMindTodayLeftSeriousWingsTrialsConcentrationCampsLeft WingConcentration CampUssrGulags 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 Nobel Prize comes from outside, it's a social recognition [reconnaissance] in a way. And I think a true artist is driven by interior necessities.” ThinkingWayArtistSocialDrivenRecognitionPrizeInteriorsNobelNobel PrizeTrue Artists Author:Catherine Camus
“I think [Albert Camus] wanted to write something to explain who he was, and how he was different from the age that had been conferred upon him.” ThinkingWritingDifferentAgeWanted Author:Catherine Camus
“[Albert Camus] started thinking through sensation. He could never think with artefacts or with cultural models because there were none. So it's true to say that his morality was extremely 'lived', made from very concrete things. It never passed by means of abstractions . It's his own experience, his way of thinking.” ThinkingWayMeanMadeMoralityModelsSensationsConcreteAbstractionWay Of ThinkingArtefacts Author:Catherine Camus
“I think [Albert] Camus felt very solitary. You can see it in all his books.” ThinkingBookFeltSolitary Author:Catherine Camus
“Just because of [Albert Camus] way of sensing before thinking. He's in a field that he often feels like escaping from. In any case, you have to learn what blood is. It all has to be rationalised. In that he feels exiled, solitary.” ThinkingWayFeelsCasesBloodFieldsSolitaryEscapingSensing Author:Catherine Camus
“When [Jean-Paul] Sartre was asked whether or not he would live under a communist regime he said, "No, for others it's fine, but for me, no." He said it! So it's hard to say just how intellectual his stance is. How can you think that never in your life would you go to live in a communist regime and still say it's fine for everybody? A very difficult thing, that, but Sartre managed it.” ThinkingSaidStillsHardDifficultFineIntellectualCommunistRegimesDifficult ThingsStancePaul Sartre Author:Catherine Camus
“I think for an artist what is most important is to touch as many hearts as possible.” ThinkingHeartImportantArtist Author:Catherine Camus
“I think for [Albert] Camus his mother was more than just that. She's love, absolute love. That's why it's written for her, dedicated to 'you who will never be able to read this book'.” ThinkingBookAbleMotherWrittenAbsolutesDedicatedAbsolute Love 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
“[Albert Camus] positions are sensed. So, naturally, those intellectuals who don't have that experience have difficulty in comprehending it. But I think it made Camus more tolerant because he had already seen both sides of things when the others had only ever seen one. They imagine poverty, but they don't know what it is. In fact they've got a sort of bad conscience about the working classes.” ThinkingKnowsMadeFactsSidesClassPovertyImaginePositionConscienceDifficultyWorking ClassBoth SidesComprehending Author:Catherine Camus
“I couldn't ever act or think on behalf of what my father [[Albert Camus]] would have said or done. He's an artist, he considers himself an artist, and so he takes on the responsibility of speaking for those who are not given the means or the opportunity.” ThinkingMeanSaidDoneArtistFatherOpportunityGivenResponsibilityBehalf Author:Catherine Camus
