Why did Jean-Paul Sartre refuse the Nobel Prize?

He gave 2 reasons:

1. He had always refused any official awards because he felt that a writer should never turn into an "institution" that would always be associated with the organizations that had given the awards. A writer should be free to express his own views without any restrictions or associations to other than himself.

2. He saw The Nobel Committee as a western institution and he did not wish to "choose sides" in the East-West conflict that was going on at the time. He thought that his acceptance of the prize would associate him with more with the West, and he did not want that.

Other than that he gave praises to the Nobel Committee and had no negative feelings toward them or the prize.