So long as we have failed to eliminate any of the causes of human despair, we do not have the right to try to eliminate those means by which man tries to cleanse himself of despair.
ANTONIN ARTAUDSo long as we have failed to eliminate any of the causes of human despair, we do not have the right to try to eliminate those means by which man tries to cleanse himself of despair.
ANTONIN ARTAUDI would like to write a Book which would drive men mad, which would be like an open door leading them where they would never have consented to go, in short, a door that opens onto reality.
ANTONIN ARTAUDWe have the right to lie, but not about the heart of the matter.
ANTONIN ARTAUDThe actor is merely a crude empiricist, a practitioner guided by vague instinct.
ANTONIN ARTAUDYou are quite unnecessary, young man!
ANTONIN ARTAUDWith society and its public, there is no longer any other language than that of bombs, barricades, and all that follows.
ANTONIN ARTAUDWithout sarcasm I sink into chaos.
ANTONIN ARTAUDThis is why true beauty never strikes us directly. The setting sun is beautiful because of all it makes us lose.
ANTONIN ARTAUDThe truth of life lies in the impulsiveness of matter. The mind of man has been poisoned by concepts. Do not ask him to be content, ask him only to be calm, to believe that he has found his place. But only the madman is really calm.
ANTONIN ARTAUDI do not like detached creation. Neither can I conceive of the mind as detached from itself. Each of my works, each diagram of myself, each glacial flowering of my inmost soul dribbles over me.
ANTONIN ARTAUDThe actor is an athlete of the heart.
ANTONIN ARTAUDActors are athletes of the heart.
ANTONIN ARTAUDLife consists of burning up questions.
ANTONIN ARTAUDI have need of angels. Enough hell has swallowed me for too many years. But finally understand this–I have burned up one hundred thousand human lives already, from the strength of my pain.
ANTONIN ARTAUDHell is of this world and there are men who are unhappy escapees from hell, escapees destined ETERNALLY to reenact their escape.
ANTONIN ARTAUDI am adding another language to the spoken language, and I am trying to restore to the language of speech its old magic, its essential spellbinding power, for its mysterious possibilities have been forgotten.
ANTONIN ARTAUD