A scrap of paper

I prefer committed men to literatures of commitment. It seems that to write a poem about spring today would be to serve capitalism. I am not a poet, but I should delight in such a work without mental reservation, if it were beautiful. One serves mankind all together or not at all. And if man needs bread and justice, and if we must do the necessary to satisfy that need, he also needs pure beauty, which is the bread of his heart. The rest is not serious. Yes, I should like to see them less committed in their work and a little more so in their daily life. - Camus