“The papers were always talking about the debt owed to society. According to them, it had to be paid. But that doesn't speak to the imagination. What really counted was the possibility of escape, a leap to freedom, out of the implacable ritual, a wild run for it that would give whatever chance for hope there was. Of course, hope meant being cut down on some street corner, as you ran like mad, by a random bullet. But when I really thought it through, nothing was going to allow me such a luxury. Everything was against it; I would just be caught up in the machinery again.”

— Albert Camus , book The Stranger

The Stranger (1942)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The papers were always talking about the debt owed to society. According to them, it had to be paid. But that doesn't s…" by Albert Camus?

Albert Camus photo

Albert Camus 209

French author and journalist 1913–1960

Related quotes

“You sit around and you go, “Oh, I hope people like me, and I hope they friend me, and I hope they do all this superficial stuff that doesn't cost anything.” But what you really want is to not suck enough that people that you really admire wouldn't mind doing something with you.”

Merlin Mann (1966) American blogger

“Back to Work” podcast, Episode 1 (at 5:58) http://5by5.tv/b2w/1
Podcasts, 5by5 Studios podcasts

“I'm known as a survivor now, I hope so, for the jail thing, bullets and everything, controversies and everything, I hope so. And I want to be in the future known as somebody. You know I want people to be talking about me like you know: "remember when he was real bad, remember when Tupac was real bad". You know what I mean, they do that about a lot of actors now, like John Travolta I read stories like "remember you were wild."”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

And all these other people, and now they're like sweet hearts. We all should get that chance, I just want my chance.
1990s, MTV interview with Tabitha Soren (1995)

“I miss having to wonder about any aspect of an artist’s life. [This] was a luxury we don’t have anymore. Whether it’s the people surrounding them revealing things about their process or their personal lives, or the artists themselves going on Twitter and telling you what they’re doing in the middle of the night with their girlfriend — it’s like, ‘Wow, um… I really liked you better before you told me that. I really would like to go back to imagining the person that I was imagining.”

Davey Havok (1975) American singer

Alternative Press magazine, December 2009

“I'm known as a survivor now, I hope so, for the jail thing, bullets and everything, controversies and everything, I hope so. And I want to be in the future known as somebody. You know I want people to be talking about me like you know: "remember when he was real bad, remember when Tupac was real bad". You know what I mean, they do that about a lot of actors now, like John Travolta I read stories like "remember you were wild". And all these other people, and now they're like sweet hearts. We all should get that chance, I just want my chance.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, MTV interview with Tabitha Soren (1995)

“I had to be the head of the household really for the first time and say okay, I have to actually make a rule that we’re going to live by here. And I decided what it was is that the family comes over the work always. I mean, with the kids it’s a priority. Because I wanted them to have a feeling like they could count on me like I was really there, I wasn’t just visiting. I didn’t want one of these moments like, “Jeez, honey, I’m sorry I’m not going to see you this week or this month or whatever because I’m going to LA.” I got some offers early that go out to LA and do parts on sitcoms and I said no, because it meant going and being away for a month.”

Louis C.K. (1967) American comedian and actor

http://entertainment.time.com/2011/06/22/louis-ck-interview-part-1-fatherhood-and-fear/#ixzz2LfKg3gu2

“Writers only think they are interested in politics, they are not really, it gives them a chance to talk and writers like to talk but really no real writer is really interested in politics.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

"The Situation in American Writing," Partisan Review (Summer 1939)
How Writing Is Written: Previously Uncollected Writings, vol.II (1974)

“If it wasn't about race, y'know, if it was really about what the Tea Party says their issue is – deficits – who ran up all that debt? Bush! Where was the Tea Party then? The two wars we put on the credit card, the prescription drug program that wasn't paid for, the tax cuts that weren't paid for, where were they then? *crickets!* But as soon as President Nosferatu took office, then, suddenly, debt is intolerable. I think there's just something they don't like about him… I cannot put my finger on what it is… Just some way he's not like them… Skinny! That's probably what it is. He's skinny, and that's why they hate him… Oh, and also that he's a Muslim socialist out to destroy America and wave his African wonder-schlong in your daughter's face.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Crazy Stupid Politics (2012)

“In other periods of depression it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground for hope — nothing of man. But there is still religion, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That continues as a solid basis for hope and courage.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Conversation with Charles Andrews (1 January 1933), quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (2000).
1930s

“Those faces you see every day on the streets were not created entirely without hope: be kind to them: like you they have not escaped.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“I suppose I really seemed mad, then; but it was only through the awfulness of having said nothing but the truth, and being thought to be deluded.”

Sarah Waters book Fingersmith

Source: Fingersmith

Related topics