Alfred Jarry
» Applause » “We believe that the applause of silence is the only kind that counts.”
» Audiences » “It is because the public are a mass — inert, obtuse, and passive — that they need to be shaken up from time to time so that we can tell from their bear-like grunts where they are — and also where they stand. They are pretty harmless, in spite of their numbers, because they are fighting against intelligence.”
» Audiences » “It is because the public are a mass — inert, obtuse, and passive — that they need to be shaken up from time to time so that we can tell from their bear-like grunts where they are — and also where they stand. They are pretty harmless, in spite of their numbers, because they are fighting against intelligence.”
» Destructiveness » “We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.”
» Discipline » “Blind and unwavering undisciplined at all times constitutes the real strength of all free men.”
» God » “God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.”
» Socializing and Socialism » “You’re looking exceptionally ugly tonight, Madam, is it because we have company?”
» Taste » “It is conventional to call ”monster” any blending of dissonant elements. I call ”monster” every original inexhaustible beauty.”
» Theater » “The theater, bringing impersonal masks to life, is only for those who are virile enough to create new life: either as a conflict of passions subtler than those we already know, or as a complete new character.”
» Theater » “The virtue of dress rehearsals is that they are a free show for a select group of artists and friends of the author, and where for one unique evening the audience is almost expurgated of idiots.”
» Tradition » “To keep up even a worthwhile tradition means vitiating the idea behind it which must necessarily be in a constant state of evolution: it is mad to try to express new feelings in a ”mummified” form.”
