Overall Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) considered himself a writer more than a philosopher. Almost as soon as he could read, he projected a career as a master of French literature, his idea of what this might mean changing as his taste moved from boys' adventure novels to the classics. In his mid-teens, he decided, following his excitement at first reading Bergson, to study philosophy at the École Normale; but that was because he regarded philosophy as “simply a methodical description of man's inner states, of his psychological life, all of which would serve as a method and instrument for my literary works … I thought that taking the agrégation exam in philosophy and becoming a professor of philosophy would help me in treating my literary subjects.” The idea was that philosophy would provide an intellectual foundation for literature.

When Sartre's philosophical thought developed and, predictably, took the direction of the new philosophy of existence, it is hardly surprising that he maintained a close tie between literature and philosophy.