Quotessence
Home / Authors / Giannina Braschi Books
Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi Books

Writer

Putinoika

A source page for quotes linked to Giannina Braschi.

0 quotes

Yo-yo boing!

A source page for quotes linked to Giannina Braschi.

0 quotes

Empire of Dreams

A source page for quotes linked to Giannina Braschi.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“What we have here is a war—the war of matter and spirit. In the classical era, spirit was in harmony with matter. Matter used to condense spirit. What was unseen—the ghost of Hamlet’s father—was seen—in the conscience of the king. The spirit was trapped in the matter of theater. The theater made the unseen, seen. In the Romantic era, spirit overwhelms matter. The glass of champagne can’t contain the bubbles. But never in the history of humanity has spirit been at war with matter. And that is what we have today. The war of banks and religion. It’s what I wrote in Prayers of the Dawn, that in New York City, banks tower over cathedrals. Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is our religion. When I came back to midtown a week after the attack—I mourned—but not in a personal way—it was a cosmic mourning—something that I could not specify because I didn’t know any of the dead. I felt grief without knowing its origin. Maybe it was the grief of being an immigrant and of not having roots. Not being able to participate in the whole affair as a family member but as a foreigner, as a stranger—estranged in myself and confused—I saw the windows of Bergdorf and Saks—what a theater of the unexpected—my mother would have cried—there were only black curtains, black drapes—showing the mourning of the stores—no mannequins, just veils—black veils. When the mannequins appeared again weeks later—none of them had blond hair. I don’t know if it was because of the mourning rituals or whether the mannequins were afraid to be blond—targets of terrorists. Even they didn’t want to look American. They were out of fashion after the Twin Towers fell. To the point, that even though I had just dyed my hair blond because I was writing Hamlet and Hamlet is blond, I went back to my coiffeur immediately and told him—dye my hair black. It was a matter of life and death, why look like an American. When naturally I look like an Arab and walk like an Egyptian.”

HumorFearTerrorismAmerican PoliticsWar On TerrorHoly WarArabsSeptember 11 Attacks
Author:Giannina Braschi
Create image

“Technology came with the promise, I’ll liberate you from the chains of work. Instead, it enchained you to the shackles of need and want. I don’t need. I desire. Desire is a liberation from need. Desire opens its wings to the plenty of possibilities arising for all of us, in the air, in the water, in the sun. Desire makes us strong. Need is weak and meek and coughs and can’t make it by itself alone.”

TechnologyDesire QuotesDesires And DreamsNeedinessPutinoikaTech Additions
Book:Putinoika
Create image

“When you create a genre—which is not a movement—because it has no past—and if it has a past—its past is pregnant with a future bigger than its past—its past is its post-creation—only a point of departure—it created modes of thinking. A genre has in itself movements, generations—and after all these concepts expire in time—the genre—that is an artifact—that is a fact made shift—it doesn’t belong to a date—it is not dated—it includes all the expirations that expire in its belly—and it is still pregnant with new beginnings.”

Quotes About WritingGenresGenre BendingLiterary MovementsQuotes About Writing Books
Book:Putinoika
Create image

“On Make America Great Again: The agenda of a dead body coming back to life. Whenever you have the past (what is dead) presenting itself as an agenda to fix the present moment by taking us back—to the dead—you have contagion, pest, collusion, pollution, delusion—not illusion. Illusion is a hope. Delusion is a past illusion presenting itself as hope. Hope is something that has not happened yet, but when it happens, and the happening has already died and been buried—and other present moments have come forward and made us live other present moments—and a dead body—a dead moment—comes back presenting itself as if it were alive—and it is dead—and it doesn’t tell us that it is dead—that is not an illusion—that is a delusion.”

IllusionDelusionHope QuotesPolitical PhilosophyHope QuotationsDelusions Of GrandeurMake America Great AgainMake America GreatPolitical Philosopher
Book:Putinoika
Create image

“Marketers keep inventing desires, necessities for you and for me. I need this. I need that. I need. I need. It's the need of a smoking fit. If you don't smoke that cigarette now, you'll die - when in reality you die because you succumb to the rage and rattle of the needy greed that keeps you busy needing more and more things. Is this the American Dream - the greedy need?”

IfsNeedsDreamRealityDesireDiesFitGreedBusyRageSmokeSmokingAmerican DreamCigaretteGreedyInventingNeedyMarketers
Author:Giannina Braschi
Create image