I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.
The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him.
I think those who object to my characterizing man as simple want somehow to retain a deep mystery at his core.
Thinkers too often disparage men of action in ways that do them no credit.
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
One of the commitments I made to myself when I decided to write a book was to be brutally honest, particularly about myself.
I know that I am a singer and an actor, yet in order to give the public the impression that I am neither one nor the other, but the real man conceived by the author, I have to feel and to think as the man the author had in mind.
The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.