“The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.”

French philosopher, writer, and political activist

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, writer, and political activist. He is remembered for work that helped define twentieth-century French thought, and he received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44. His books include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. His writing and public work are closely associated with questions of absurdity, moral choice, and political commitment.