Words is Sartre's memoir of his childhood, written in the early 1960s. He recalls growing up in Paris in the household of his grandfather, surrounded by books, and his early wish to become a writer. The account is witty, ironic and often critical of his younger self, as he examines how a child learns to play a role and how literature came to seem his calling. It is both a lively portrait of a bookish childhood and a reflection on what writing means.