We survey the basics of homological algebra in exact categories in the sense of Quillen. All diagram lemmas are proved directly from the axioms, notably the five lemma, the 3 x 3-lemma and the snake lemma. We briefly discuss exact functors, idempotent completion and weak idempotent completeness. We then show that it is possible to construct the derived category of an exact category without any embedding into abelian categories and we sketch Deligne's approach to derived functors. The construction of classical derived functors with values in an abelian category painlessly translates to exact categories, i.e., we give proofs of the comparison theorem for projective resolutions and the horseshoe lemma. After discussing some examples we elaborate on Thomason's proof of the Gabriel-Quillen embedding theorem in an appendix.

48 pages, uses xypic diagrams, accepted for publication in Expositiones Mathematicae. Improved exposition, added motivation and examples, several proofs simplified and polished