You know, I've been thinking: all the women in the books you like -- Sartre and Camus and all that -- they don't really exist. Not as people. They're only there to wait for the men. To love them and be loved back or not -- mostly not; to be beaten up or killed; to appear as a face on the wall of Meurseault's cell-- Ahdaf Soueif
About This Quote

In this quote by Albert Camus, he uses the example of a character in a book to make his point. In the book, the character only exists as a face on a wall and spends most of her time waiting for a man to come and rescue her. The only time she is truly herself is when she is being beaten or killed or saved by a man. She is not really there as a person but as an object that can be used for someone else’s purposes. In this particular case, the author uses the example of a woman being loved by an author as an inspiration for male characters to be loved by women.

Source: In The Eye Of The Sun

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