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Jean Genet

Jean Genet Quotes

Novelist

Jean Genet was a French novelist known for his unique style and profound social criticism. His works often delve into the lives of marginalized individuals and their place in the social structure. Genet's life was filled with drama, having been a beggar and prisoner, experiences that deeply influenced his writing.

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All Men World Knows Betrayal Ifs May Body Evil Jean Genet Littles People Solitude Want Crime Flower Language Made Moments Murderer Order

Famous Jean Genet Quotes

“Beauty has no other origin than the singular wound, different in every case, hidden or visible, which each man bears within himself, which he preserves, and into which he withdraws when he would quit the world for a temporary but authentic solitude”

Men World Different Cases Bears Solitude Wounds Quitting Preserves Visible Temporary

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“The most reasonable man always manages, when he pulls the trigger, to become a dispenser of justice.”

Men Justice Manage Reasonable Triggers Reasonable Man

Book:The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine Scenes

Source: The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine Scenes

“A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.”

Men Long Dream Order Darkness Long Time Nurse Grandeur

Book:Miracle of the Rose

Source: Miracle of the Rose

“The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man... not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.”

Men Objects Revolution Ideology Liberation Interpretation Application Rebellious Transcendental

Book:Prisoner of Love

Source: Prisoner of Love

“Crimes of which a people is ashamed constitute its real history. The same is true of man.”

People Men Real History Crime Ashamed Committing Crimes

Book:Letters to Roger Blin: reflections on the theater

Source: Letters to Roger Blin: reflections on the theater

“When I beheld you, suddenly - for perhaps a second - I had the strength to reject everything that wasn't you and to laugh at the illusion. But my shoulders are very frail. I was unable to bear the weight of the world's condemnation. And I began to hate you when everything about you would have kindled my love and when love would have made men's contempt unbearable, and their contempt would have made my love unbearable. The fact is, I hate you.”

Men World Made Facts Hate Laughing Bears Illusion Weight I Hate Shoulders Rejects Contempt Hate You Unbearable I Hate You Condemnation Frail Weight Of The World

Book:The Blacks: A Clown Show

Source: The Blacks: A Clown Show

“When the judge calls the criminal's name out he stands up, and they are immediately linked by a strange biology that makes them both opposite and complementary. The one cannot exist without the other. Which is the sun and which is the shadow? It's well known some criminals have been great men.”

Men Wells Has Beens Names Known Sun Strange Judging Shadow Opposites Criminals Great Men Biology Well Known Linked Complementary

Book:The selected writings of Jean Genet

Source: The selected writings of Jean Genet

“Though they may not always be handsome men doomed to evil posses the manly virtues.”

Men May Evil Virtue Doomed Handsome Manly Posse Handsome Men

Author:Jean Genet

“The despondency that follows makes me feel somewhat like a shipwrecked man who spies a sail, sees himself saved, and suddenly remembers that the lens of his spyglass has a flaw, a blurred spot -- the sail he has seen.”

Men Feels Remember Saved Spots Flaws Sail Lenses Spy Despondency

Book:Our Lady of the Flowers

Source: Our Lady of the Flowers

“What I did not yet know so intensely was the hatred of the white American for the black, a hatred so deep that I wonder if every white man in this country, when he plants a tree, doesn't see Negroes hanging from its branches.”

Ifs Knows Men Country Black White Race Wonder Tree Racism Hatred Plant Branches White Man Plant A Tree Bare Branches

Author:Jean Genet

“In order to weep, I had descended to the realm of the dead themselves, to their secret chambers, led by the invisible but soft hands of birds down stairways which were folded up again as I advanced. I displayed my grief in the friendly fields of death, far from men: within myself.”

Men Hands Order Grief Secret Fields Bird Invisible Realms Friendly Chamber Stairways

Book:Funeral Rites

Source: Funeral Rites

“There are mornings when all men experience with fatigue a flush of tenderness that makes them horny.”

Men Morning Tenderness Fatigue Horny

Book:Our Lady of the Flowers

Source: Our Lady of the Flowers

“Men endowed with a wild imagination should have, in addition, the great poetic faculty of denying our universe and its values so that they may act upon it with sovereign ease.”

Men Should May Values Universe Imagination Should Have Ease Faculty Poetic Sovereign Great Poet Wild Imagination

Book:Our Lady of the Flowers

Source: Our Lady of the Flowers

About the Author

Born: December 19, 1910
Died: April 15, 1986
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 88

Related Topics

Men World Knows Betrayal Ifs May Body Evil Jean Genet Littles People Solitude Want Crime Flower Language Made Moments Murderer Order

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

The thief's journalRelated source material

Our Lady of the FlowersRelated source material

The selected writings of Jean GenetRelated source material

Prisoner of LoveRelated source material

The BalconyRelated source material

Notre Dame Des Fleurs.Related source material

QuerelleRelated source material

The Balcony: (Le Balcon) a Play in Nine ScenesRelated source material

The Blacks: A Clown ShowRelated source material

Funeral RitesRelated source material

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