This is my affair, and I declare that Robespierre is so far from controlling my pen, that I never had the slightest connection with him.

I have seen him but once, and the sole conversation has convinced me that he was not the man whom I sought for the supreme and energetic power demanded by the Revolution.
"The first word he addressed to me was a reproach for having dipped my pen in the blood of the enemies of liberty,--for always speaking of the cord, the axe, and the poignard; cruel words, which unquestionably my heart would disavow, and my principles discredit.

I undeceived him.
'Learn,' I replied to him, 'that my credit with the people does not depend on my ideas, but on my audacity, the daring impetuosity of my mind, my cries of rage, despair, and fury against the wretches who impede the action of the Revolution.

I know the anger, the just anger, of the people, and that is why it listens to, and believes in, me.

Those cries of alarm and fury, that you take for words in the air, are the most simple and sincere expression of the passions which devour my mind.
Yes, if I had had in my hand the arms of the people after the decree against the garrison of Nancy, I would have decimated the deputies who confirmed it.